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THE  ^ 


STATE  OF  THE  IIPENITENT  DEAD. 


t 


BY 


ALYAH    HOYEY,    D.D. 


PROFESSOR  OF  CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  NEWTON 
THEOLOGICAL  INSTITUTION.  .  .    ,    « 


'  O  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  Ck)l^  ,a"  "'..5;b?JiflB^ir',  tO.     ', 
Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  butlh^  wor^  shall  not  pass  away,' 


Matthew  xxiv.  35. 


BOSTON: 
GOULD     AND     LINCOLN 

69    WASHINGTON     STREET. 

NEW  YORK:  SHELDON,  BLAKEMAN  &  CO. 

CINCINNATI:  GEORGE  S.  BLANCHARD. 

1859. 


THE  NEW  YC?>K 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY 

i  ''^  *.*:  »>  <.'  kJ 

A8T0R,  LENOX  AND 

TILDEN  FOUNDATIONS 

R  1916  L 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

GOULD    AND    ^LINCOLN, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


PRINTED   BT 
OBOROB    C.     RAND 


k    ATBBT. 


ELECTnOTTPED  BT 

WATSON,  OLOVER,  HYMER,  &   STANLEY. 

FEAJiKLIN   ELECTEOTYl'K  FOUNDBT. 


PREFACE. 


At  the  request  of  Christian  brethren,  who  are 
familiar  with  the  topics  of  religious  inquiry  now 
before  the  community,  and  therefore  now^demSiD+iing 
special  treatment,  this  !^8§ay  is,^yen  f,o  ""thfe  'ptiDlic* 
It  is  an  attempt  to  set  forth' i:i  tn'if  thV.Scriptural 
testimony  for  a  momentous  doctr-i^e',  aM'.tb  •remove 
certain  popular  objections  to  that  doctrine.  It  does 
not  profess  to  exhaust  the  evidence  in  support  of  the 
view  which  is  maintained,  nor  does  it  undertake  a 


*  The  Essay  was  read  before  the  Conference  of  Baptist  Ministers 
of  Massachusetts,  at  their  annual  meeting  held  in  Worcester,  Oct. 
26, 1858.  Subsequently,  the  Conference  "  voted  unanimously  that 
it  would  be  exceedingly  gratifying  to  them  if  the  Author  would 
give  the  Essay  to  the  public  in  any  manner  most  agreeable  to  him- 
self." 


6  PREFACE. 

reply  to  all  tlie  assaults  upon  that  view;  but  it 
simply  aims  to  present  the  decisive  considerations, 
the  cardinal  points  of  the  argument,  so  that  one  who 
pursues  the  question  no  further  may  have  at  least 
good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  the  belief  which  he 
entertains.  And  if,  by  the  blessing  of  Him  whose 
"  word  liveth  and  abideth  forever,"  this  object  is 
gained,  the  desire  of  the  writer  in  committing  these 
pages  to  the  public  will  also  be  accomplished. 

:.:•■;.•••.•..•  A.  H. 

Newton  CJentre,  DKTc.'ie,  HKS/  ; 
'*  *  •••  **.••'    I   *! 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION    I. 

BODY  AND  SOUL. 

ORIGINAL  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THE  BODY  AND  THE  SOUL, 
THE  FORMER  BEING  MADE  CORRUPTIBLE,  THE  LATTER 
INCORRUPTIBLE,  —  HENCE,  AN  ORIGINAL  DIFFERENCE  OF 
RELATION  TO  ENDLESS  EXISTENCE,  THE  FORMER  BEING, 
AND  THE  LATTER  NOT  BEING,  ADAPTED  TO  THE  SAME. — 
THIS  ADAPTATION  MADE  MANIFEST  BY  THE  PROPERTIES 
OF  THE  SOUL, 11 

SECTION    II. 

DEATH  AND  LIFE. 

NATURE  OF  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  OF  SIN,  AS  INDICATED  (1) 
BY  THE  NARRATIVE  IN  GENESIS  ;  (2)  BY  THE  USE  OF  THE 
TERM  DEATH  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT;  AND  (3)  BY  THE 
USE  OF  ITS  OPPOSITE,  THE  TERM  LIFE, 28 


8  CONTENTS. 

SECTION    III. 

THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE. 

PROOF  OF  CO>SCIOUSNESS  IN  THE  IXTERMEDLVTE  STATE  — 
(1)  FROM  THE  WORDS  OF  CHRIST  ;  (2)  FROM  THE  WORDS 
OF  peter;  (3)  FROM  THE  WORDS  OF  PAUL;  (4)  FROM  THE 
"WORDS  OF  CHRIST. —  OBJECTIONS  TO  THIS—  (1)  FROM  SCRIP- 
TURE ;    AND   (2)  FROM  REASON, 53 

SECTION    IV. 

THE  FINAL  STATE. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  JOSEPHUS  AND  TACITUS. — TESTIMONY  OF 
CHRIST  AFTER  HIS  ASCENSION.  —  HIS  TESTIMONY  WHILE 
YET  ON  EARTH.  —  REPLY  TO  ANOTHER  INTERPRETATION 
OF  HIS  LANGUAGE, 74 

SECTION     V. 

BIBLICAL  OBJECTIONS  CONSIDERED. 

(1)  "death,"  the  EXTINCTION  OF  CONSCIOUS  BEING. — THE- 
ORY OF  HAM. —  THEORY  OF  HUDSON. —  (2)  "  DESTRUCTION," 
THE  EXTINCTION  OF  CONSCIOUS  BEING. —  SUPPORTS  OF  THIS 
VIEW.  —  OBJECTIONS  TO  IT, 93 


CONTENTS.  9 

SECTION    VI. 

FURTHER    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED. 

(1)  THE  DEAD  PRONOUNCED  UNCONSCIOUS  BY  OLD  TESTA- 
MENT WRITERS.  —  REPLY  TO  THIS  STATEMENT.  —  (2)  THE 
LANGUAGE  OF  THE  APOSTOLICAL  FATHERS  AND  EARLY 
APOLOGISTS  CONFIRMATORY  OF  THE  PRECEDING  OBJEC- 
TIONS. —  THIS  ASSUMPTION  SHOWN  TO  BE  INCORRECT,  .  .  .    124 

SECTION    VII. 

RATIONAL  OBJECTIONS. 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.  —  OBJECTIONS  (1)  FROM  THE  OM- 
NIPOTENCE OF  GOD.  —  REPLY.  —  (2)  FROM  THE  RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS OF  GOD.  —  REPLY.  —  (3)  FROM  THE  BENEVOLENCE  OF 
GOD.  —REPLY.  —  CONCLUSION, 142 


THE 


STATE  OF  THE  DIPENITENT  DEAD. 


SECTION   I. 

BODY  AND  SOUL. 

ORIGINAL  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THE  BODY  AND  THE  SOUL,  THE  FORMER 
BEING  MADE  CORRUPTIBLE,  THE  LATTER  INCORRUPTIBLE.  —  HENCE,  AN 
ORIGINAL  DIFFERENCE  OF  RELATION  TO  ENDLESS  EXISTENCE,  THE  FOR- 
MER BEING,  AND  THE  LATTER  NOT  BEING,  ADAPTED  TO  THE  SAME. — 
THIS  ADAPTATION  MADE  MANIFEST  BY  THE  PROPERTIES  OF  THE  SOUL. 

No  topic  within  the  range  of  human  thought 
is  approached  by  the  majority  of  good  men  with 
greater  reluctance  than  the  topic  of  this  essay. 
Many  indeed  prefer  to  avoid,  if  possible,  all  refer- 
ence to  the  final  state  of  unbelievers,  and  some- 
times, it  maybe  feared,  shrink  from  a  careful  study 
of  the  language  employed  by  the  sacred  writers 
to  describe  that  state.  It  will  therefore  occasion 
no  surprise,  if  we  say  that  the  following  pages 


12  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

owe  tlicir  existence,  primarily,  to  the  claims  made 
upon  the  writer  by  his  employment ;  for  other- 
wise, so  awful  is  the  doom  which  seems  to  be 
denomiccd  by  the  word  of  God  upon  such  as  re- 
main impenitent,  he  might  have  been  led  to  defer 
still  longer  a  protracted  examination  of  the  ele- 
ments of  that  doom.  Hence,  too,  the  general  form 
and  style  of  this  essay,  the  occasional  insertion  of 
a  Greek  word  or  clause,  and  the  fresh  translation 
of  a  passage  now  and  then  from  the  original  text, 
may  remind  our  readers  of  the  use  to  which 
it  was  first  applied,  but  will  not  obscure  the 
course  or  diminish  the  value  of  our  investigation. 
It  need  scarcely  be  said,  that  we  undertook 
the  discussion  of  our  theme,  not  only  with  con- 
scious reluctance,  from  a  sense  of  duty,  but  also 
with  a  deep  conviction  of  its  unrivalled  solem- 
nity and  importance ;  feeling  that  it  would  be 
wronging  the  character  of  God,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  represent  him  as  threatening  and  inflicting  a 
heavier  penalty  upon  sinners  tlian  he  lias  really 
threatened,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  would 
be  wronging  his  character  no  less  to  represent 
him  as  annexing  a  milder  penalty  to  transgres- 
sion than  he  has  really  annexed ;  feeling  that  in 
this  case,  as  in  every  other,  it  is  our  duty  to 
abide  by  the  testimony  which  God  has  given, 


BODY   AND    SOUL.  13 

leaving  every  difficulty  and  mystery  to  be  cleared 
by  the  light  of  an  after  life. 

We  shall  therefore  endeavor  to  ascertain,  by 
an  appeal  to  the  word  of  God,  the  true  meaning 
of  the  term  death,  when  used  by  sacred  writers 
to  denote  the  penalty  of  sin,  and  then  to  examine 
the  principal  objections  to  this  meaning.  This 
investigation  will  lead  us  directly  to  the  ultimate 
object  of  our  essay,  namely,  a  knowledge  of  the 
state  of  the  impenitent  dead.  And  we  may  open 
our  way  to  the  Biblical  use  of  the  term  death  by 
observing,  — 

I.  That  the  Scriptm'es  recognize  an  original  and 
important  difference  between  the  soul  of  man  and  his 
body.  God  is  said  to  have  created  man  in  his  own 
image ;  ^  and  this  image  or  likeness  of  God  must 
be  found,  we  suppose,  in  the  rational  and  moral 
properties  of  the  human  soul,  as  it  came  from 
the  hand  of  God.  If  the  resemblance  of  man  to 
his  Maker  be  not  found  in  this  part  of  his  nature, 
it  seems  impossible  for  him  to  obtain  any  distinct 
and  trustworthy  conception  of  God.  If  he  can- 
not transfer  from  his  own  spirit  to  the  infinite 
One  the  generic  ideas  of  knowing,  of  feeling, 
and  of  willing — if  he  cannot  assume  that  his  own 
soul  is  in  some  proper  sense  a  copy  of  the  divine 

1  Gen.  i.  26,  27. 


14  STATE   OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

mind;  though  on  a  scale  infinitely  reduced,  he. 
may  well  despair,  not  merely  of  knowing  as  he 
is  Rnown/  but  of  ever  being  assured  that  his 
worship  is  paid  to  the  living  God,  instead  of  a 
phantom  originated  by  his  imagination.  For 
certain  it  is,  that  wc  can  form  no  conception 
whatever  of  a  personal  Deity,  without  ascribing 
to  him  cognitive,  emotive,  and  voluntary  powers, 
that  is  to  say,  the  fundamental  powers  of  the 
human  soul. 

In  another  place  we  are  told  that  "  the  Lord 
God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,*"^ 
—  language  which  appears  to  distinguish  the 
vital,  informing  principle  of  human  nature  from 
its  material  part,  pronouncing  the  former  to  be 
more  directly  from  God,  and  akin  to  him,  than 
the  latter ;  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  one 
reader  in  a  thousand,  if  left  to  himself,  would 
take  any  other  view  of  the  case. 

Again,  the  Almighty  describes  himself  as 
"Jehovah  which  stretcheth  forth  the  heavens, 
and  layeth  the  foundation  of  the  earth,  and 
formeth  the  spirit  of  man  within  him  ;"3 — words 
which  seem  plainly  to  recognize  the  soul  as 
distinct  in  nature  from  the  body,  and  to  assign  it 

1 1  Cor.  xiii.  12.  =  Gen.  ii.  7.  «  Zech.  xii.  1. 


BODY   AND   SOUL.  15 

a  dignity  and  worth  far  beyond  that  of  any  mate- 
rial organism.  It  was  the  forming  of  man's  spirit 
which  the  prophet  looked  upon  as  the  crowning 
work  of  Jehovah,  and  cited,  along  with  the  crea- 
tion of  heaven  and  of  earth,  as  a  proof  of  his 
almighty  power. 

The  language  of  Paul  belongs  also  to  our 
argument.  ''  I  know  a  man  in  Christ,  fourteen 
years  ago  —  whether  in  the  body  I  know  not,  or 
out  of  the  body  I  know  not,  God  knoweth — such 
an  one  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,"  ^  etc. 
Now  if  the  apostle,  as  he  undoubtedly  affirms, 
was  distinctly  conscious  of  having  been  caught 
up  into  paradise,  and  of  having  been  permitted 
to  hear  words  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  man 
to  utter,  while  at  the  same  time  he  was  uncertain 
whether  his  whole  nature,  body  and  soul,  or  only 
the  latter,  was  caught  up,  is  it  not  manifest  that 
he  deemed  it  possible  for  the  soul  to  be  conscious 
and  active,  apart  from  the  body?  Is  it  not 
manifest  that  he  esteemed  the  personality  of  man 
separable  from  a  material  organism,  and  capable 
of  ecstatic  joy  in  a  disembodied  state  ? 

If,  now,  we  add  to  these  passages  the  testimony 
of  Solomon,  "  Then  shall  the  dust  return  to  the 
earth  as  it  was,  but  the  spirit  shall  return  to  God 

1 2  Cor.  xii.  2.  seq. 


16  STATE    OF    THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

wlio  gave  it;i  the  prayer  of  Stephen,  "Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit; "^  and  the  words  of 
Chi-ist,  "Fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body,  but 
are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul,"^  the  conclusion  be- 
comes inevitable,  that  the  Scriptures  do  recognize 
an  original  and  important  difference  between 
the  soul  of  man  and  his  body.  It  may  be  well  to 
observe, — 

II.  That  th is  original  difference  between  the  nature 
of  man'' s  body  and  that  of  his  soul  underlies  a  difference 
of  relation  to  endless  existence.  For  the  body  of 
Adam  seems  to  have  been  mortal,  even  before  the 
fall.  It  was  made  of  the  dust  of  the  ground ;  it  was 
XoCyt6gj  earthy,  and  therefore  in  its  nature  corrup- 
tible. And  so  tlie  immortality  of  man,  as  a  com- 
plex being,  was  conditioned  on  his  eating  of  the 
tree  of  life.  This  was  made  the  pledge,  if  not 
the  means,  of  a  process  by  which  his  animal  body 
might  be  exchanged  for  a  spiritual  body,  and  this 
corruptible  put  on  incorruption.  Thus  much  may 
be  inferred,  we  think,  from  the  language  and  the 
action  of  God  after  the  great  apostasy  in  Eden : 
"  And  now,  lest  he  put  forth  his  hand,  and  take 
also  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  eat  and  live  forever 
—  therefore  the  Lord  God  sent  him  forth  from 
the   garden  of  Eden,  to  till   the  ground  from 

1  Ecd.  xii.  7.  2  Acts  vu.  59.  «  Matt.  x.  28. 


BODY   AND   SOUL.  17 

whence  he  was  taken."  ^  In  the  natural  course 
of  events,  had  not  sin  intervened,  Adam  would 
surely  have  eaten  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  have 
become  immortal.  The  fruit  of  that  sacramen- 
tal or  life-giving  tree  would  in  due  time  have 
secured  to  him  perpetual  vigor,  and  have  made 
him  meet  in  bodily  organism  for  an  inheritance 
"incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away." 

This  view  of  the  original  and  natural  mortal- 
ity of  the  body  is  confirmed  by  the  language  of 
Paul.  For  he  not  only  teaches  that  our  bodies, 
as  now  constituted,  are  animal  and  corruptible, 
but  also  that  "  the  first  man,  Adam,  was  made 
a  living  soul,"^  when  God  breathed  into  his  nos- 
trils the  breath  of  life ;  and  from  the  context  it 
appears  that  the  apostle  understood  the  phrase 
"living  soul "  to  denote  a  being  whose  body  was 
psychical  and  mortal,  a  body  of  flesh  and  blood, 
which  could  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 
He  then  proceeds  to  announce  a  general  law : 
"  The  spiritual  is  not  first,  but  the  psychical  (or 
natural),  afterwards  the  spiritual." ^  The  lower 
precedes  the  higher ;  the  imperfect  the  perfect ; 

1  Gen.  iii.  22,  23. 

2  1  Cor.  XV.  45.    Cf.  the  commentaries  of  Hodge,  Alford,  Meyer, 
and  De  Wette  on  this  verse. 

3  1  Cor.  XV.  46. 

2^- 


18  STATE   OF    THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

and  this  general  law  of  development  was  to  be 
illustrated  according  to  the  plan  of  God,  in  the 
bodily  nature  of  man.  With  this  view  agree 
the  remarks  of  Meyer  on  a  subsequent  passage  : 
"  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy  —  ;/oi>oj. 
Since  the  body  of  Adam  is  thus,  as  in  v.  45, 
characterized  as  a  tpv/iicop  aCJ.ua^  or  psychical  body, 
and  since  a  psychical  organism  involves  mortality 
(v.  44),  it  is  clear  that  Paul,  in  perfect  agreement 
with  Gen.  ii.  7 ;  iii.  19,  considers  Adam  not  as 
created  immortal.  Nor  does  this  conflict  with 
his  doctrine  that  death  came  into  the  world 
through  sin}  For  had  not  our  first  parents 
sinned,  they  would  have  remained  in  paradise, 
and  would  have  become  immortal  by  eating  of 
the  tree  of  life,  which  God  had  not  forbidden 
them.2  But  ere  they  had  eaten  of  this  tree,^ 
they  were  driven  out  of  paradise,  and  so,  also, 
according  to  the  narrative  in  Genesis,  death 
came  into  the  world  by  sin." 

It  may  be  suitable  to  add,  that  the  same  view 
is  proposed  and  defended  by  Augustine.  "  Sic  et 
illud  corpus  jam  erat  mortale  ;  quam  mortal iiatc?n 
fucrat  abswnptura  mutatio  in  ceternam  incorrup- 
tioncm,  si  in  hominc  justitia,  id  est  obcdientia,  per- 

1  Rom.  V.  12.  2  Gen.  iii.  22;  ii.  16,  17.  s  Gen.  iii.  22. 


BODY   AND  SOUL.  19 

maneret ;  sed  ipsum  non  est  factum  mortuum,  nisi 
propter  peccatum.^^  ^ 

Let  us  then  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  Godj 
anticipated  the  apostasy  of  our  race,  and  fore-j 
shadowed  the  same  by  giving  to  man  a  corrup-' 
tible  body.     The  material  part  of  human  nature  \ 
was  preadjusted  to  a  sinful  condition ;  its  doom } 
in  case  of  transgression  was  provided  for  in  its 
original  constitution.     To  say  the  least,  it  was 
not  adapted  to  endless  existence.     It  gave  no 
intimation    of  perpetual  vigor.     Forces    from 
without  must  be  applied  to  change  its  nature, 
before  it  could  bear  the  weight  of  immortality. 

But  how  was  it  with  the  soul  of  man  ?  Do 
the  Scriptures  anywhere  intimate  that  this  also 
was  mortal  by  virtue  of  its  original  constitu- 
tion ?  Do  they  mention  any  ab  extra  appliances 
by  which  its  primeval  nature  was  to  be  changed, 
before  it  could  enter  upon  a  life  without  end  ? 
Instead  of  this  we  find  expressions  in  the  sacred 
record  which  seem  to  favor  an  opposite  view. 

For  our  present  purpose,  it  will  be  sufficient 
to  adduce  Paul's  remarkable  chapter  on  the 
resurrection,  —  Quod  unum  instar  est  omnium. 
And  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  apostle  in 

1  De  Pec.  Mer.  et  Remis,  I.  5. 


20  STATE   OP   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

that  chapter  fails  to  drop  even  a  liint  of  the  need 
of  any  change  in  the  natural  properties  of  the 
human  spirit  to  prepare  it  for  endless  being. 
He  plainly  avers  the  unfitness  of  our  bodily  na- 
ture for  the  eternal  world,  but  refrains  from  any 
such  testimony  respecting  our  spiritual  nature. 

Now  if  Paul  believed  the  soul  of  man  to  be 
corruptible  and  mortal  like  his  body,  his  silence 
on  this  point,  in  a  chapter  that  treats  so  fully  of 
the  resurrection,  is  not  a  little  surprising.  For 
if  the  Corinthians  deemed  the  spirit  of  man  to 
be  adapted  in  its  nature  to  a  higher  and  endless 
state  of  being,  and  if  this  belief  was  in  Paul's 
opinion  erroneous,  why  did  he  not  rectify  their 
error,  check  their  confidence  in  a  vain  philos- 
ophy, and  teach  them  that  of  the  soul,  no  less 
than  the  body,  it  may  be  said,  "  This  corruptible 
must  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  must 
put  on  immortality  ?  "  Why  did  he  not  remind 
them  of  their  folly  in  proposing  the  skeptical 
question,  "  With  what  hodij  do  they  come  ? " 
while  they  neglected  the  parallel  question,  "  With 
what  spirit  do  they  come  ?  "  But  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Corinthians  looked  upon  the  soul  of 
man  as  related  to  deatli  and  the  resurrection  in 
the  same  way  as  his  body,  and  were  troubled 
with  similar  doubts  respecting  it,  why  did  the 


BODY  AND    SOUL.  21 

apostle  restrict  his  discussion  to  the  body  merely, 
and  neglect  to  intimate,  by  a  single  remark,  that 
the  spirit  is  also  to  experience  a  no  less  essen- 
tial and  glorious  change  at  the  resurrection? 
We  therefore  submit  the  opinion,  that  Paul's  si- 
lence as  to  any  change  of  the  properties  of  the 
soul  at  the  resurrection  is  a  sound  argument 
against  its  natural  mortality,  and  in  favor  of  its 
original  and  present  adaptation  to  endless  exist- 
ence. 

We  may,  however,  proceed  a  step  further.  In 
the  chapter  before  us  we  find  another  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  apostle  regarded  the  human 
soul  as  originally  fitted  to  exist  forever.  After 
contrasting  the  body  laid  aside  at  death  with 
that  which  we  shall  possess  hereafter,  in  several 
particulars,  he  says :  "  It  is  sown  a  natural  body, 
it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body."^  Whether  the 
word  spiritual  here  describes  the  essence  or  the 
office  of  our  bodily  nature  after  the  resurrection, 
it  is  plain  that  the  spirit  is  conceived  of  as 
adapted  to  a  future  life.  For  if  the  body  is  to 
be  made  incorruptible  by  being  made  spiritual 
in  its  nature,  then  must  the  spirit  itself,  to  which 
it  is  assimilated,  be  incorruptible  and  immortal. 
Or  if  the  body  is  to  be  made  incorruptible  by 

U  Cor.  XV.  44. 


22  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

being  made  the  proper  and  permanent  organ  of 
the  spirit/  it  is  scarcely  less  evident  that  the 
latter  is  incorruptible.  "  The  servant  is  not 
greater  than  his  lord." 

But  there  is  a  grave  objection,  it  may  be 
said,  to  the  argument  now  presented,  to  wit : 
the  apostle  has  in  mind  the  resurrection  of  believ- 
ers only,  and  the  souls  of  believers  receive  at 
the  moment  of  regeneration  a  principle  of  life 
which  prepares  them  for  endless  being.  With- 
out this  principle,  they  are  as  incapable  of  eter- 
nal existence  as  the  body. 

The  plan  of  our  essay  will  soon  bring  us  to 
the  investigation  of  what  is  meant  in  the  word 
of  God  by  spiritual  life ;  and  this  investigation 
will  furnish  a  reply  to  the  objection  just  stated. 
It  may,  however,  be  observed,  in  passing,  that 
regeneration  is  not  only  characterized  by  the 
sacred  writers  as  a  creative  act,  by  wliich  the 
subject  of  it  becomes  a  new  creature  in  Christ 
Jesus,  and  a  generation  from  above,  by  which 
the  soul  is  brought  into  a  new  spiritual  life  ;  but  "1 
also  as  a  washing,  a  batliing  effected  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  by  which  the  polluted  spirit  is  cleansed ; 
as  an  illumination,  by  which  it  is  filled  with  the 

1  See  the  commontarics  of  Dc  "Wettc,  Clever,  Olshausen,  Alford, 
Ilodgc,  and  liuckhcrt,  ou  the  passage  cited  above. 


BODY   AND  SOUL.  23 

knowledge  of  God  and  qualified  to  appreciate 
spiritual  things,  and  as  a  change  of  mind,  involv- 
ing sorrow  for  sin  and  love  for  holiness.  The 
eye  of  conscience  is  clearedj  the  desires  and  af- 
fections are  reversed  and  flow  into  new  channels, 
and  the  selfish  views,  prejudices,  and  motives 
which  formerly  reigned  in  the  soul,  are  super- 
seded by  faith,  love,  and  hope,  resting  in  Christ 
and  leading  to  every  good  work.  The  entire 
spirit  is  readjusted  morally ;  its  aspirations,  ten- 
dencies, and  relations  to  God  are  rectified,  and 
it  enters,  so  to  speak,  upon  a  new  life. 

But  all  this  pertains  to  the  moral  condition 
and  experience  of  the  soul,  affording  no  evidence 
that  its  essence  has  been  changed,  that  any  fac- 
ulty or  constitutive  element  has  been  added,  any 
fresh  vigor  or  new  principle  of  existence  infused. 
And  until  such  evidence  is  furnished,  the  objection 
to  our  argument  from  the  language  of  Paul  is 
without  force. 

It  will  not  be  irrelevant  to  add,  that  those 
beings  who  are  represented  by  the  word  of  God 
as  dwelling  in  the  invisible  and  eternal  world 
are  frequently  called  spirits.  God,  "  who  only 
hath  immortality,"  is  affirmed  to  be  spirit.  The 
holy  angels  are  described  as  "  ministering  spir- 
its. "     Demons  are  spoken  of  as  evil  spirits. 


24  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

And  departed  saints,  dwelling  in  paradise  and 
awaiting  the  resurrection,  are  denominated  ''  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect."  It  seems, 
therefore,  that  all  who  inhabit  the  eternal  world 
are  either  simple  spirits,  or  are  spirits  clothed 
with  bodies  which  are  perfectly  adjusted  and 
assimilated  to  their  spiritual  nature.  Now  it 
would  doubtless  be  rash  to  draw  from  this  fact- 
alone  the  conclusion,  that,  because  human  souls 
are  frequently  called  spirits  in  the  word  of  God, 
therefore  they  must  have  been  originally  fitted 
for  endless  existence ;  but  when  we  bear  in  mind 
the  process  by  which  words  relating  to  earth 
and  to  man  are  transferred  to  beings  or  events 
of  a  higher  sphere,  the  fact  noted  by  us  may  well 
serve  to  strengthen  our  confidence  in  a  deduction 
from  other  and  surer  premises.  TVe  proceed  to 
remark,  — 

m.  That  the  original  adaptation  of  the  human 
soul  to  endless  existence  may  he  inferred  from  its 
rational  and  moral  jirojKiiies.  For,  first,  it  is 
brought  by  these  properties  into  conscious  person- 
al connection  with  the  infinite  and  the  eternal.  It 
is  put  en  rapport,  so  to  speak,  witli  the  one  abso- 
lute Personality,  with  the  immutable  principles 
of  right,  and  with  the  idea  of  causation,  binding 
the  creature  to  the  Creator,  the  conditioned  to 


BODY   AND    SOUL.  25 

the  absolute.  And;  secondly,  it  is  rendered  by 
these  properties  capable  of  action  without  wea- 
riness, and  delight  without  satiety.  We  do  not 
hesitate  to  trace  all  the  fatigue  which  results 
from  intense  and  protracted  thought  to  the  ma- 
terial organ  of  the  mind.  Our  best  intellec- 
tual processes  never  flag  until  the  brain  begins 
to  suffer.  It  would  be  easy  to  illustrate  and 
confirm  the  position  now  taken  by  many  inter- 
esting phenomena  of  dreaming.  Again,  our  ra- 
tional and  moral  tastes  are  never  satiated.  What- 
ever is  truly  sublime  or  beautiful,  answering  to  the 
normal  susceptibilities  of  our  spiritual  nature, 
"  is  a  joy  forever."  Bodily  appetites  are  soon 
glutted,  and  we  are  even  made  to  loathe,  for  a 
time,  the  objects  which  just  before  were  craved ; 
but  our  spiritual  relish  for  the  true,  the  beauti- 
ful, and  the  good,  is  never  diminished  by  the 
fullest  gratification.  Who  was  ever  satisfied  to 
loathing  with  the  grandeur  of  Niagara,  the  sub- 
limity of  Mount  Washington,  or  the  majesty  of 
the  ocean  ?  Who  was  ever  made  to  turn  away 
with  a  sense  of  satiety  from  the  sight  of  a  sun- 
set sky,  or  of  a  beautiful  landscape,  or  of  a  del- 
icate flower?  Or,  still  more  to  our  purpose, 
who  was  ever  conscious  that  the  mental  vision 
of  a  geometrical  figm^e,  the  admiration  of  an  act 
3 


26  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

of  moral  heroism,  or  the  exercise  of  a  right 
affection,  however  protracted,  had  produced  in 
him  even  a  temporary  disrelish  of  those  objects  ? 
Is  it  not  a  fact,  that  the  soul  is  so  made  as  to  be 
capable  of  permanent  delight  in  whatever  corre- 
sponds with  its  normal  tastes  ?  —  so  made,  that 
its  pleasm*e  in  the  apprehension  of  a  suitable 
object  is  not  necessarily  intermitted  or  transi- 
tory, but  may  be  at  once  complete  and  peren- 
nial ?  And  does  not  this  peculiarity  of  the  soul 
qualify  it  for  endless  existence,  and  even  fore- 
shadow such  existence  ?  It  seems  to  us  that 
but  one  reply  can  be  made  to  these  questions. 
And,  thirdly,  the  soul  was  evidently  adapted  in 
the  beginning,  by  its  rational  and  moral  proper- 
ties, "to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  forever." 
And  notwithstanding  the  terrible  shock  and 
change  which  it  experienced  in  the  apostasy,  it 
has  a  religious  nature  still,  and  is  still  called 
upon  evermore  to  worship  him  who  is  God  over 
all,  blessed  forever.  AVe  discover,  or  seem 
to  discover,  in  this  religious  nature  of  the  soul, 
this  innate  testimony  for  the  ever-living  God,  this 
silent  call  and  command,  issuing  from  the  very 
centre  of  the  spirit,  to  engage  in  his  worship,  a 
qualification  for,  and  a  prophecy  of,  immortality. 
To  unfold  tliis  argument,  however,  would  detain 


BODY   AND    SOUL.  2T 

US  too  long,  and  we  therefore  bring  these  prelim- 
inary observations  to  a  close. 

We  have  seen  that  the  body  of  man  was 
made  in  the  beginning  comijptible,  and  that  bod- 
ily death,  a  penal  result  of  sin,  was  provided  for 
in  his  original  constitution.  We  have  also  seen 
that  the  soul  of  man  was  made  originally  incor- 
ruptible, adapted  to  endless  existence.  And  this 
difference,  we  submit,  establishes  a  valid  pre- 
sumption that  the  penal  result  of  sin  to  the  soul 
does  not  consist  in  its  dissolution  or  extinction. 
The  strength  of  this  presumption  will  of  course 
depend  almost  entirely  upon  the  view  which  is 
entertained  by  each  individual  of  the  eternal 
purpose,  order,  and  harmony  of  the  divine  gov- 
ernment. We  can  but  think  it  is  entitled  to 
great  consideration ;  and  the  more,  because  it 
will  be  found  that  provision  was  made  in  the 
original  structure  of  the  soul  for  a  penal  result 
of  sin,  which  is  called  death  in  the  word  of 
God. 


SECTION    II. 

DEATH  AND  LIFE. 

NATURE  OP  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  OF  SIN,  AS  INDICATED  (1)  BY  THE 
NARBATIVE  IN  GENESIS,  (2)  BY  THE  USE  OF  THE  TERM  DEATH  IN  THE 
NEW  TESTAMENT,  AND  (3)  BY  THE  USE  OF  ITS  OPPOSITE,  THE  TEEM 
LIFE. 

To  ascertain  the  nature  of  death^  the  penalty 
of  sm,  we  may  first  examine  the  language  of 
Jehovah  to  Adam  before  the  fall :  "  Of  the  tree^ 
of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt 
not  eat  of  it;  for  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  dic."^  Here  Adam  is 
threatened  with  certain  death  in  case  of  disobe- 
dience. The  verb  is  made  emphatic  by  repeti- 
tion; as  if  God  had  said,  Death,  death,  certain 
death,  shall  be  the  reward  of  transgression. 

But  this  threatening,  however  emphatic  and 
ominous  it  may  be,  does  not  in  itself  indicate 
the  nature  or  contents  of  death.  God,  to  be 
sure,  may  have  explained  its  nature  to  om-  first 

1  Gen.  ii.  17. 


DEATH   AND    LIFE.  29 

parents ;  but,  if  so,  his  explanation  was  not  put 
on  record  for  our  instruction. 

Yet  there  is  a  clause  in  the  verse  before  us, 
which  may  perhaps  furnish  no  little  aid  to  those 
who  would  discover  the  contents  of  this  threat- 
ened death.  "  In  the  day  of  thy  eating  of  it,  thou 
shalt  surely  die."  Disobedience  was  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  immediate  punishment.  '^ 

If,  now,  we  examine  the  narrative  in  Genesis, 
we  shall  discover  the  first  fruits  of  the  fall  in 
the  soids  of  Adam  and  Eve.  Shame  at  their 
own  nakedness,  and  dread  of  Jehovah's  presence, 
both  springing  from  guilt,  began  at  once  to  be 
felt.  Thus  it  was  the  soul  which  experienced 
the  first  stroke  of  retributive  justice.  Its  fel- 
lowship with  God  and  consequent  blessedness 
were  lost.  And  for  this  result,  so  fatal  to  the 
well-being  of  man,  ample  provision  had  been 
made  in  the  properties  of  his  spiritual  nature. 
The  ministers  of  divine  justice  had  been  sta- 
tioned in  every  part  of  the  town  of  Mansoul, 
and  no  sooner  was  sin  admitted,  than  they 
began  to  frown  upon  the  guilty  place,  filling  it 
with  terror  and  confusion. 

But  this  great  penalty,  following  close  on  the 
heels  of  transgression,  and  provided  for  in  the 
original  constitution  of  the  soul,  was  not  the  ex- 
3^ 


30  STATE    OP   THE   IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

tinction  of  conscious  being,  but  the  extinction  of 
conscious  well-being — was  not  the  loss  of  exist- 
ence, but  rather  the  loss  of  true  spiritual  life, 
which  is  the  normal  and  blessed  working  of  a 
moral  nature.  It  was  a  dissolution  of  man's 
spiritual  relation  to  God ;  a  separation  far  more 
disastrous  than  that  of  soul  and  body  in  physi- 
cal death. 

And  when  "  in  the  breeze  of  the  day  "  God 
called  the  guilty  pair  before  him,  what  was  the 
sentence  which  he  pronounced?  Upon  the 
woman  birth-throes  and  subjection  to  man,  and 
upon  the  man  wearisome  toil  until  his  body 
should  return  to  the  dust.  Nothing  is  here  said 
of  death,  except  in  the  final  words,  "  Until  thou 
returnest  to  the  ground,"  etc. ;  and  no  one  will 
pretend  that  these  words  comprise  all  the  evil 
which  was  threatened  as  the  penalty  of  sin, 
when  God  said,  "In  the  day  that  tliou  catest 
thereof,  thou  shalt  surely  die."  For  if  we  may 
interpret  the  threatened  punishment  of  trans- 
gression by  the  recorded  effects  of  it  upon  the 
feelings  and  conduct  of  our  first  parents,  this 
penalty  had  two  elements,  suffering  and  loss, 
and  took  effect,  chiefly  at  least,  in  the  soul 
rather  than  the  body.  On  the  positive  side, 
there  were  shame  and  remorse,  followed  by  toil 


DEATH   AND    LIFE.  31 

and  pain ;  and  on  the  negative  side,  there  were 
the  loss  of  fellowship  with  God,  and  of  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  life,  together  with  all  the  advan- 
tages of  paradise. 

And  what  better  terms  than  life  and  death 
could  have  been  chosen  to  characterize  the  dif- 
ferent states  of  the  soul  before  and  after  so 
dreadful  a  catastrophe.  Love,  light,  fellowship 
with  God,  gave  place  to  bitterness,  alienation, 
darkness.'  The  normal  and  blessed  action  of 
the  spirit  was  reversed  forever.  The  moral 
magnetism,  which  should  have  drawn  it  ever- 
more towards  the  Centre  and  Source  of  all  good- 
ness, was  destroyed,  and  like  the  arch  fiend  in 
Milton's  sublime  epic,  it  "  took  its  solitary  way 
into  the  realms  of  Chaos  and  old  Night."  It 
was  lost,  separated  from  God;  and  this,  we 
think,  was  the  all-comprehending  and  tremen- 
dous penalty  of  sin.  Bodily  death  was  but  the 
shadow  of  this  spiritual  ruin.  Like  birth-pangs 
and  oppressive  toil,  it  fitly  accompanied  the  more 
dreadful  doom  of  the  soul. 

We  do  not,  however,  claim  that  all  this  is 
indubitably  taught  by  the  narrative  in  Genesis ; 
but  we  do  claim  that,  according  to  this  narra- 
tive, the  chief  penalty  of  sin  was  inflicted  upon 
the  soul  and  not  upon  the  body.     And  from  the 


32  STATE   OF   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

words,  "in  the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof," 
interpreted  by  the  subsequent  history,  we  also 
conclude  and  maintain  that  the  clause,  "  thou 
shalt  surely  die,"  was  not  employed  to  denote 
extinction  of  being,  but  to  denote  a  forlorn  and 
miserable  existence ;  that  is  to  say,  we  hold 
that  the  term  death,  when  used  by  sacred  writ- 
ers to  signify  the  penalty  of  sin,  refers  to  the 
destruction  of  well-being  rather  than  of  simple 
existence. 

But  is  there  anything  in  the  word  of  God, 
apart  from  the  history  in  Genesis,  to  confirm 
this  view  ?  Is  there  any  evidence  that  the  term 
death,  when  applied  to  the  soul,  may  signify 
something  else  than  a  termination  of  its  con- 
scious life  ?  Any  proof  that  the  affirmation  of 
eternal  death  may  virtually  be  the  affirmation 
of  eternal  existence  ? 

In  reply  to  these  queries,  we  first  appeal  to 
these  words  of  Christ :  "  Follow  me,  and  let  the 
dead  bury  their  dead^  ^  Here  the  first  toi)? 
vFxqov;  refers  to  those  who  are  spirituaJhj  dead, 
that  is,  to  unbelievers  in  Christ;  while  the 
second  refers  to  those  who  are  physically  dead. 
This  view  of  the  words  is  taken  by  nearly  all 

1  Matt.  viii.  22. 


DEATH   AND   LIFE.  33 

respectable  interpreters,^  and  it  gives  not  only 
the  most  obvious  meaning  of  terms  as  here 
employed,  but  a  meaning  which  has  also  borne 
the  test  of  repeated  and  severe  scrutiny.  No 
other  view  so  well  accords  with  the  manifest 
scope  of  the  passage. 

We  pass  next  to  the  language  of  Christ  to 
the  church  in  Sardis  :  '^  I  know  thy  works,  that 
thou  hast  a  name,  that  thou  Uvest,  and  a?t  dead."^ 
The  seven  churches  of  Asia  were  addressed  by 
the  Saviour,  through  his  apostle,  in  order  to 
rekindle  their  zeal  for  God,  and  make  them 
watchful  against  error  and  steadfast  in  the  faith. 
Some  of  them  had  lost  their  first  love.  Some 
of  them  observed  the  formal  duties  of  Christian- 
ity, but  had  little  or  no  spiritual  life.  Their 
works  did  not  spring  from  faith,  and  were  there- 
fore dead.3  The  church  in  Sardis  was  thus  dead. 
It  had  the  form  of  godliness,  but  not  the  life 
and  power.  This  is  the  only  natural  interpre- 
tation of  the  passage,  and  is  sustained  by  the 
judgment  of  the  great  body  of  careful  exposi- 
tors.*    Yitringa  remarks,  that  many  of  "these 

1  Eg.  De  Wette,  Meyer,  Olshausen,  Stier,  Alford,  Ripley,  and 
others. 

2  Rev.  iii.  1.  3  See  Heb.  vi.  1;  ix.  14. 

*  Eg.  Robinson,  De  "Wette,  Meyer,  Hengstenberg,  Stuart,  Ebrard, 
and  others. 


34  STATE   OF   THE  IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

Asiatic  churches  now  presented,  as  to  their 
major  part,  rather  the  lurid  aspect  of  death  than 
the  vivid  expression  of  life  —  inagis  luridam  mor- 
tis, qiiam  vividam  vita  specicm.^^ 

Turning  now  to  the  writings  of  Paul,  we  find 
him  saying  to  the  Colossians :  ''And  you,  being 
dead  in  your  sins  and  in  the  uncircumcision  of  your 
flesh,  hath  he  quickened  together  with  him ;  "  ^ 
and  to  the  Ephesians :  "  You  who  were  dead  in 
tresspasses  and  sins — hath  he  quickened."  ^ 
The  obvious  teaching  of  these  passages  is  that 
both  the  Ephesian  and  the  Colossian  Christians 
were,  previous  to  their  regeneration,  morally 
dead,  and  that  by  regeneration  they  had  ob- 
tained spiritual  life.  Says  Calvin :  "  Dicit  mor- 
tuosfidssc  :  et  simid  cxprimit  mortis  causam,  ncmpe 
pcccata.  No7i  intclligit  sohimfuisse  in  mortis  per- 
iculo  :  sed  real  cm  mortem  sig^iijicat  ac  prcesentem, 
qua  jam  erant  opprcssi.  Nam  spiritvalis  mors 
nihil  aliud  sit,  quam  alienatio  a?ii?nce  a  Deo,  omncs 
mortui  nascimur,  et  mortid  vivimus,  donee  efficiamun 
virt(c  Christi  jmrticipcs.^^  On  the  word  vexoovc, 
in  the  passage  from  Ephesians,  Alford  remarks : 
*'  The  whole  of  the  subsequent  mercy  of  God,  in 
his  quickening  them,  is  spiritual,  and  therefore  of 

1  Col.  ii.  13.  2  Eph.  ii.  1,  5. 


DEATH    AND    LIFE.  35 

necessity  the  death  also.  That  it  involves  physi- 
cal death  is  most  true  ;  but,  as  I  have  often  had 
occasion  to  remark,  this  latter  is  so  subordinate 
to  spiritual  death,  as  often  hardly  to  come  into 
account  in  Scripture."  Ellicott  takes  the  same 
view  of  this  word,  and  says  that  "  the  proleptic 
reference  to  physical  death  seems  irreconcilable 
with  the  context." 

Moreover,  in  his  first  letter  to  Timothy,  Paul 
makes  use  of  this  expression :  "  She  that  liveth 
riotously  is  dead  while  she  liveth;"^  literally 
livinor,  she  is  dead.  Death  and  life  are  here 
predicated  of  the  same  person,  at  the  same  time. 
By  using  the  form  le&t^ijxsv^  which  signifies  has 
died,  and  so  is  dead  in  the  present  tense,  the 
apostle  declares  that  being  dead  is  compatible 
with  being  at  the  same  time  alive.  But  the  life 
here  spoken  of  is  plainly  one  of  conscious  exist- 
ence ;  and  hence  the  death  referred  to  cannot 
involve  a  negation  of  such  existence.  It  must 
rather  be  the  opposite  or  negative  of  some  high- 
er life,  some  better  condition,  and  finer  flow  of 
being.  That  is  to  say,  it  must  be  spiritual  death,  ) 
the  insensibility,  darkness,  and  misery  of  a  soul 
alienated  from  God. 

On  the  words  to  which  we  have  now  called 

1 1  Tim.  V.  6. 


36  STATE    OP    THE    DIPEXITENT    DEAD. 

attention,  Schtittgen  remarks,  "  The  Jews  often 
employ  this  oxymoron  in  their  writings.  In  gen- 
eral, all  the  impious  are  thus  denominated  by 
them."  He  proceeds  to  cite  from  the  Rabbins 
such  expressions  as  follow  :  " '  The  ungodly, 
even  in  this  life,  are  pronounced  dead.  The 
ungodly  man,  who  walks  not  in  the  way  of  truth, 
is  said  to  be  dead.'  i  '  I  praised  the  dead,  who 
died  before.'  From  which  it  is  evident  that 
they  of  whom  the  verse  speaks  are  alive,  and 
yet  are  said  to  be  dead.  ^  ^  For  the  living 
know  that  they  must  die,  but  the  dead  know 
nothing.'  By  the  living,  are  to  be  understood 
the  just;  by  the  dead,  the  unjust."  Again: 
"  Those  are  meant  who,  even  in  death,  are  called 
living.  '  And  the  dead  know  nothing ; '  here  the 
ungodly  are  meant,  who,  even  in  the  activity  of 
life,  are  called  dead."  ^ 

However  erroneous  may  be  some  of  these 
interpretations,  they  illustrate  the  use  of  the 
term  death  to  signify  a  moral  condition  of  the 
soul,  and  we  cite  them  merely  to  prove  this  use 
of  the  term  by  early  Jewish  writers.  A  thorough 
survey  of  Rabbinic  testimony  would  not,  we 
suppose,  fail  to  justify  the  general  statement  of 
Schottgcn,  introduced  above. 

1  Eccl.  iv.  2.  2  Eccl.  ix.  5. 

8  Sec  Scliottgcn's  IIorjE  llcbraioro,  T.  pp.  l'vl,377. 


DEATH   AND    LIFE.  37 

Witli  the  passages  already  considered  might 
be  associated  many  others,  ^  in  which  some  form 
or  derivative  of  S-vr^ay.o}  {to  die)  is  applied  to  the 
unregenerate  in  this  life ;  but  it  would  be  super- 
fluous to  accumulate  evidence  on  the  point.  It 
can  hardly  be  denied,  that  "  death,"  "being  dead," 
"  dying,"  etc.,  are  by  the  Scriptures  predicated 
of  the  soul  no  less  than  of  the  body,  and  that, 
when  affirmed  of  the  former,  these  terms  do  not 
generally,  if  ever,  involve  an  extinction  of  con- 
scious being.  And  this  application  of  the  word 
death  to  the  conscious  spirit  of  man,  in  other 
parts  of  the  sacred  record,  confirms  our  exposi- 
tion of  the  penalty  denounced  upon  sin  in  Gen- 
esis. 

This  exposition  is  also  sustained  by  the  use 
which  is  made  of  the  term  "  life,"  in  many  pas- 
sages of  the  inspired  volume.  For  this  word  is 
employed  by  the  New  Testament  writers  to  de- 
signate the  kind  of  conscious  being  possessed  by 
Christians,  rather  than  the  mere  fact  of  exist- 
ence, a  blessed  life  in  fellowship  with  God,  rather 
than  simple  being.  We  begin  with  the  language 
of  Christ. 

On  a  certain  occasion,  he  pronounced'  it 
necessary  for  the  Son  of  Man  to  be  lifted  up, 

1  Eg.  Rom.  vi.  13;  xi.  15;  Eph.  v.  14,  etc. 

4 


38  STATE   OF   THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

"  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life'^^  —  e/^  Cwi"  ulihvtov. 
Xb)i)v  aiibi'ioi',  says  Meyer,  who  "  is,  perhaps, 
the  best  commentator  on  the  New  Testament, 
of  modern  times,"  2  signifies  the  eternal  Messi- 
anic life,  which,  however,  the  believer  already 
possesses —  s/r]  —  in  this  uim'^  that  is,  in  the  tem- 
poral development  of  that  moral  and  blessed 
life  which  is  independent  of  death,  and  which 
will  culminate  in  perfection  and  glory  at  the  com- 
ing of  Christ."  And  Liicke,  whose  commentary 
on  the  gospel  of  John  is  one  of  the  most 
thorough  and  attractive  in  the  German  language, 
says  that  the  toi)  rxithyio;,  which  is  the  exact  op- 
posite of  un(i)).6iu  (^destruction),  or  d^dn'aiog  (death), 
is  the  sum  of  Messianic  blessedness.  It  is  plain, 
we  think,  tliat  the  life  here  spoken  of  as  the 
present  possession  of  every  believer  in  Christ  is 
more  than  endless  existence  ;  it  is  life  in  the  full- 
est and  highest  sense  of  the  word,  the  free,  holy 
and  blessed  action  of  the  whole  man,  that  is  to 
say,  the  proper,  normal  living  of  a  rational  and 
moral  being.  The  germ,  the  principle  of  this  life, 
exists  in  the  heart  of  every  believer;  it  is  a 
present  possession.     ''  Whosoever,"  says  Christ, 

I  John  iii.  15.  2  Dr.  Ilodirc,  of  Princeton. 


DEATH   AND    LIFE.  39 

"drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him, 
shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  be  in  him  a  fountain  —  nr^Yi)  — of  water, 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life."  ^  In  another 
place  our  Saviour  utters  these  words :  "  He  that 
heareth  my  word,  and  believeth  on  him  that  sent 
me,  hath  eternal  life,  and  shall  not  come  into 
condemnation,  but  has  passed  from  death  mto  Ufe  "  ^ 

fUETa^^^r^xsv  ex  tov  S^avdiov  eig  triv  ^wtjV.      Here, 

again,  the  believer  is  said  to  have  eternal  life, 
even  now ;  for  he  has  passed  from  death  into 
life.  Ingens  saltus,  remarks  Bengel,  with  his 
customary  brevity  and  graphic  power.  We 
translate  a  part  of  Liicke's  ample  and  instructive 
note  on  this  important  verse. 

"  The  words,  ^  Has  passed  from  death  into  life,' 
determine  that  £/et  (hath)  must  be  taken  as  a 
strict  present.  For  the  verb  fiTjTudi^Tjxsv  (has 
passed)  affirms  that  the  transition  from  death 
into  life  took  place  with  the  hearing  and  believ- 
ing. Only  if  an  impossible  thought  were  thus 
expressed,  could  we  consent,  as  in  a  case  of  ex- 
treme necessity,  to  understand  the  present  I'/et 
and  the  present  perfect  fisia^^^rjxsv  as  futures. 
And  then  we  should  be  compelled  to  say  that 

1  John  iv.  14.  2  John  v.  24. 


40  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

John  had  expressed  himself  very  strangely.  But 
if  a  higher  kind  of  life,  a  resurrection  process 
prior  to  bodily  death,  is  represented  by  '  hath,' 
and  '  hath  passed,'  then  t&j^  and  ^wt)  uiibviog  are 
not  to  be  understood  of  a  life  commencing  after 
bodily  death,  but  of  the  true  and  eternal  Messi- 
anic life  or  salvation,  beginning  even  here.  This 
life  does  not,  to  be  sure,  exclude  natural  death, 
but  neither  does  it  first  begin  after  this  death.  ^ 
Even  so  S^divaxog  cannot  be  understood  of  bod- 
ily, but  only  of  spiritual  death,  of  lying  in 
the  darkness  of  the  world.  This  interpretation 
would  be  justified  here,  even  ii^iLvaxog  elsewhere 
in  the  New  Testament  denoted  uniformly  nothing 
but  bodily  death.  But  the  metaphorical  idea  of 
death  stands  out  clearly  in  1  John  iii.  14;  v.  16, 
17;  John  viii.  51,  52;  2  Cor.  ii.  16;  vii.  10. 
Similar,  also,  is  the  use  of  the  words  x^avarovv^ 
Bom.  vii. 4 ;  viii.  1 3  ;  and  v£y.Q6Q,  vexoovp,  dTro&vr^axsiv^ 
Matt.  viii.  22;  Eph.  v.  14;  Heb.  vi.  1;  Col.  iii. 
5;  Gal.  ii.  19." 

With  the  passage  now  examined  may  be  com- 
pared a  statement  of  the  apostle  John  to  the 
same  efibct,  namely,  "  We  know  that  we  have 
passed  from  death  into  life,  because  we  love  the 
brethren ;  he  that  loveth  not;  abideth  in  death. "^ 

1  Cf.  V.  40.  2  1  John  iii.  14. 


DEATH    AND    LIFE.  41 

This  language,  explained  with  a  due  regard  to 
the  preceding  context,  speaks,  evidently,  of  spir- 
itual death  and  life,  of  a  passing  from  one  moral 
condition  into  another  and  opposite  one.  To 
say  that  this  new  moral  condition  and  blessed 
state  is  to  endure  and  improve  forever,  may 
doubtless  be  to  utter  an  important  truth,  but 
one  which  does  not  conflict  in  the  slightest  de- 
gree with  its  present  existence.  It  begins  in. 
this  life ;  it  continues  forever  and  ever. 

Again,  we  find  our  Saviour  saying :  "  He  that 
believeth  on  me  hath  everlasting  life  ;  "  "Except 
ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  drink  his 
blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you;"  and,  "The  words 
that  I  speak  unto  you  are  spirit,  and  are  life."^ 
By  these  verses  we  are  taught,  once  more,  that 
the  Greek  terms  which  denote  life  and  death, 
living  and  dying,  were  applied  by  Christ  to  op- 
posite moral  states  of  the  soul.  For,  observe, 
(1)  he  more  than  intimates  that  his  words,  his 
doctrines,  are  the  source  of  present  life  to  those 
who  receive  them,  and  that,  by  eating  his  flesh 
and  drinking  his  blood,  he  signifies  a  reception 
of  his  words,  and  so  of  himself  as  the  Lamb 
of  God.      And  (2)  he  declares  that  one  who 

1  John  vi.  47,  53,  63. 
4^ 


42  STATE   OP   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

believes  has  eternal  life ;  that  one  who  eats  of 
the  true  bread  shall  not  die  but  shall  live  for- 
ever, and  that  one  who  does  not  eat  the  flesh 
and  drink  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not 
life  in  himself. 

Is  it  not  plain  that  the  words  life  and  death, 
as  well  as  the  words  bread,  flesh,  and  blood,  eat- 
ing and  drinking,  are  here  used  in  a  spiritual 
sense  ?  Is  it  not  plain  that  Jesus  here  speaks 
of  something  in  the  believer's  soul  which  is 
nourished  by  Christian  truth,  and  which  is  at  the 
same  time  called  life  ?  But  it  is  the  function  of 
truth  to  quicken  thought  and  feeling,  to  deter- 
mine the  modes  of  conscious  life,  the  character  or 
moral  condition  of  the  human  soul ;  and,  hence, 
the  rejection  of  it  may  involve  the  utter  want  of 
certain  spiritual  qualities  and  blessed  emotions, 
but  not  the  want  of  personal  existence.  In  still 
another  place  we  read,  "  Jesus  said  unto  her,  I 
am  the  resurrection  and  the  life :  he  that  believ- 
eth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ; 
and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me,  shall 
never  die."  ^  Christ  here  afi&rms  that  every  be- 
liever is  exempted  from  death.  And  it  matters 
not  for  om'  present  purpose  whether  the  word 

1  John  xi.  25,  2G. 


DEATH   AXD    LIFE.  43 

^wv,  translated  in  onr  version  "livetli/'  refers  in 
this  passage  to  pliysical  or  to  moral  life.  K  it  re- 
fers to  physical  life,  then  our  Saviour  pronounces 
the  Christian  to  be  already,  in  timC;  delivered 
from  the  power  of  death,  and  in  possession  of 
a  true  and  immortal  life.  But  if  it  refers  to 
moral  life,  Christ  declares  that  whoever  pos- 
sesses this  life,  whether  in  the  body  or  out  of 
the  body,  is  delivered  from  the  power  of  death ; 
that  is,  his  union  with  God  and  delight  in  him, 
which  alone  constitute  the  normal  living  of  the 
soul,  shall  never  be  interrupted :  ov  fu-q  d.7io&(!tprj  eig 
rbv  uiwpa  —  he  shall  never  die. 

Yet  the  words  just  cited  have  been  said  to 
signify  "shall  not  die  forever ;'^  that  is,  shall  not 
suffer  eternal  death ;  and,  thus  explained,  have 
been  urged  in  support  of  the  doctrine  that  death 
involves  the  extinction  of  conscious  being.  ^ 
The  purpose  of  this  essay  permits  us  to  test 
this  novel  interpretation,  by  referring  to  some 
of  the  passages  which  contain  the  phrase  Big  tup 

aiibvoc. 

According  to  Matthew,  Christ  said  to  the  fig- 
tree,  "  Let  no  fruit  grow  on  thee  henceforward 

15am  (J.  p.),  in  "Bible  Examined,"  vol.  YU.  p.  74:  "' Shall 
not  die  forever; '  he  shall  die  for  a  time,  but  not  forever ;  he  shall 
rise  again." 


44  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

forever;  "  ^  and,  according  to  Mark,  '^  Let  no  man 
eat  fruit  of  thee  hereafter /orerer."  ^  Would  it 
express  the  meaning  of  Christ,  in  this  instance, 
to  render  the  phrase  in  question  cternalhj,  or 
in  eternity,  instead  o^  forever,  implying  that  the 
tree  might  bear  fruit  for  a  while  in  time  ?  Again, 
Christ  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  He  that  shall 
blaspheme  against  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  never 
forgiveness."  ^  Does  this  language  merely  nega- 
tive the  prospect  of  eternal  forgiveness,  while 
it  leaves  undisturbed  the  hope  of  temporal  for- 
giveness ?  Is  God  one  who  really  forgives  the 
blasphemer  for  a  time,  but  cannot  forgive  him 
for  eternity  ?  Once  more  :  In  the  gospel  written 
by  Luke,  Mary  is  represented  as  saying,  "He 
hath  liolpen  his  servant  Israel  by  remembering 
mercy,  (as  he  spake  to  our  fathers,)  to  Abraham 
and  to  his  seed /were?-."  ^  Did  not  God  show 
mercy  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  in  time  as 
well  as  in  eternity  ?  Was  he  not  to  remember 
mercy  from  the  time  of  Abraham  onward  for- 
ever, instead,  perhaps,  of  being  severe  in  time, 
and  then  gracious  in  eternity  ?  Again,  Jesus 
says  to  the  Avoman  of  Samaria,  "  AYhosoever 
drinketh  of  tliis  water  shall  thirst  again  —  nuUv 

1  Matt.  xxi.  19.  3  Mark  iii.  29. 

2  Mark  xi.  14.  •«  Luke  i.  54,  55. 


DEATH   AND    LIFE.  45 

—  but  whosoever  shall  drink  of  the  water  that  I 
shall  give  him,  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a  fountain 
of  water,  welling  up  into  everlasting  life."^ 
Here,  evidently,  it  is  not  asserted  that  whoso- 
ever receives  the  true  water  of  life  shall  not 
thirst  forever  J  though  he  may  for  a  time,  but 
from  the  reception  of  this  water  onward  forever 
he  shall  not  thirst.  In  another  place  Christ  de- 
clares, "If  any  man  eat  of  this  bread," — his 
own  body  in  contrast  with  the  manna, —  "he 
shall  Hyg  forever;^' 2  ^nd  likewise,  "he  that  eateth 
of  this  bread  " —  again  in  contrast  with  the  eat- 
ing of  manna  and  dying  —  "shall  live  forever." ^ 
Still  later  Christ  says,  "  The  servant  doth  not 
abide  in  the  house  forever;  the  son  abideth  for- 
ever; "  that  is  to  say,  the  abiding  of  the  servant 
is  merely  transient,  while  that  of  the  son  is 
permanent.  And  in  the  same  chapter  we  read, 
"  If-  a  man  keep  my  saying,  he  shall  never  see 
death."*  The  meaning  associated  with  this  form 
of  expression  by  the  Jews  is  made  known  by  their 
response:  "Abraham  died,  and  the  prophets, 
and  thou  sayest.  If  a  man  keep  my  word  he 
shall  never  taste  of  death."     Again,  Christ  says 

1  John  iv.  13, 14.  3  John  vi.58. 

2  John  vi.  51.  ^  John  \iii.  35, 51. 


46  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

of  his  sheep,  "I  give  unto  them  eternal  life, 
and  they  shall  never  perish."  ^  Did  our  Saviour 
mean  to  say.  They  may  perish,  or  be  plucked  from 
my  hand  for  a  time,  but  they  shall  not  perish  for 
ever  ?  Once  more  :  "  The  people  answered  him, 
We  have  heard  out  of  the  law  that  Christ 
abideth /o?-ei"er ;  and  how  sayest  thou  the  Son 
of  Man  must  be  lifted  up  ?  "  2  Evidently  the  idea 
of  abiding  forever  was  not  equivalent  in  the 
minds  of  these  men  to  abiding  in  eternity  or 
eternally,  the  termhuis  a  quo  beginning  in  a  future 
world;  but  it  was  equivalent  to  abiding  per- 
petually, from  the  time  of  his  appearance  miward 
forever.  Again,  Peter  is  represented  as  saying 
to  Christ,  "  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my  feet."  ^ 
Would  it  give  the  exact  sense  of  this  passage 
to  translate  it  thus :  ^-  Thou  shalt  not  wash  my 
feet  forever,  though  thou  mayest  now  ?  "  And, 
finally,  Christ  tells  his  disciples,  "I  will  pray 
the  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you  another  com- 
forter, that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever.'' 

"We  have  now  brought  forward  all  the  passages 
in  the  gospels  which  contain  the  phrase,  d;  ibv 
ui6)va^  either  alone  or  modified  by  a  negative 
particle ;  and  we  believe  it  must  be  clear  to  all, 

1  John  X.  28.  2  John  xii.  3-4.  8  John  xiii.  8. 


DEATH    AXD    LIFE.  47 

that  this  plu^ase  never  signifies  eternally  as  the 
opposite  of  temporalbj ;  never  refers  exclusively 
to  the  future  and  everlasting  state.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  uniformly  starts  in  time  and  denies 
any  future  limit.  The  phrase  occurs  but  rarely 
in  the  remaining  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  always  in  the  sense  given  above. 

From  this  partial  digression  we  return  to  our 
examination  of  the  term  life.  "And  this  is  life 
eternal,"  says  the  Great  Teacher,  "that  they 
should  know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent.  "-^  The  best  ancient 
and  modern  interpreters  hold  this  verse  to  be  a 
definition  by  Christ  himself  of  the  expression 
"  life  eternal,"  so  often  used  by  him  according  to 
the  record  of  John.  De  Wette  says  :  ^^And  this 
is  (therein  consists)  the  life  eternal;  not,  this  is 
the  means  of  the  eternal  life ;  for  the  vital  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  Christ  is  itself  the  eternal 
life  which  begins  even  here,  and  penetrates  the 
whole  life  of  the  human  spirit."  Meyer  trans- 
lates thus  :  "  Therein  consists  the  eternal  lifej''  and 
says,  "  This  knowledge,  willed  of  God,  is  the 
^  eternal  life,'  inasmuch  •as  it  is  the  essential 
subjective  principle  of  the  latter,  its  enduring, 

1  John  x\'ii.  3. 


48  STATE   OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

eternally  unfolding  germ  and  fountain,  both  now 
in  the  temporal  development  of  the  eternal  life, 
and  hereafter  when  the  kingdom  is  set  up,  in 
which  faith,  hope,  and  charity  abide,  whose  es- 
sence is  that  knowledge."^  The  same  view, 
substantially,  is  presented  by  Olshausen,  Liicke, 
Bengel,  Alford,  and  many  others. 

The  passage  before  us  may,  therefore,  be 
taken,  as  conclusive  evidence  that  the  idea  of 
simple  life,  of  personal  existence,  was  not  that 
which  Christ  intended  to  express  by  -fi  tcori  and 
t,(oii  aiihviog,  as  applied  by  him  to  Christians. 
Hence,  also,  there  is  ample  reason  for  supposing 
that  he  did  not  mean  by  the  word  d-uraw;,  as  the 
opposite  or  negative  of  these  words,  literal 
death,  or  an  end  of  conscious  being.  Both  terms 
have  rather  a  spiritual  sense,  and  are  used  to 
designate  the  moral  condition  of  those  to  whom 
they  are  applied. 

It  is  further  to  be  noted,  that  the  work  of  re- 
generation which  takes  place  confessedly  in  the 
soul  of  man,  is  called  by  inspired  teachers  a 
resurrection.  "  Therefore,"  says  Paul,  "  we  are 
buried  with  him  by  baptism  into  death,  that  like 
as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the 

1  For  7va  before  a  defining  clause,  see  John  vi.  29;  iv.  34;  1  John 
iii.  11,23;  iv.  21;  2  John  vi. 


DEATH   AND    LIFE.  49 

glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also  should  walk 
in  newness  of  life.  ^  And  a  little  further  on  he 
uses  this  language  :  "  Yield  yourselves  unto 
God  as  those  that  are  alive  from  the  deady  ^  In 
another  epistle  he  remarks,  "And  you,  being 
dead  in  your  sins  and  the  uncircumcision  of  your 
flesh,  did  He  quicken  —  or  make  alive  —  with 
Him ;  "  ^  and,  after  a  few  verses,  "  If  ye  then  be 
risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things  which  are 
above;  "^  adding,  presently,  that  they  had  "put 
off  the  old  man  with  his  deeds,  and  had  put  on 
the  new,  renewed  unto  knowledge  after  the 
image  of  Him  that  created  him."  ^  And,  in  yet 
another  epistle,  he  says  that  "  God,  who  is  rich 
in  mercy  .  .  .  hath  quickened  us  together 
with  Christ,  and  hath  raised  us  up  together, 
and  seated  us  together  in  heavenly  places  in 
Christ  Jesus."  ^  From  this  class  of  passages 
we  venture  to  conclude  that  the  term  "  resurrec- 
tion" is  sometimes  applied  to  the  soul,  and  refers 
to  the  change  effected  by  regeneration.  But  if 
the  new  birth  is  a  resurrection  of  the  soul  from 
the  dead,  it  is  evident  that  the  term  death,  when 
predicated  of  the  soul,  does  not  mean  precisely 

1  Rom.  vi.  4.  3  Col.  ii.  13.  5  Col.  iii.  10. 

2  Rom.  vi.  12.  4  Col.  ui.  1.  6  Eph.  ii.  4,  6. 

5 


50  STATE    OP    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

the  same  as  it  does  when  used  of  the  body.  As 
a  predicate,  its  meaning  is  modified  by  the  nature 
of  its  subject. 

It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  several 
other  terms  are  so  applied  to  believers  in  the 
New  Testament  as  to  confirm  our  explanation 
of  the  words  "  life,"  "  eternal  life,"  and  ''  resur- 
rection," when  predicated  in  the  present  tense 
of  genuine  Christians.  They  are  said  to  be 
"  begotten  again,"  '-  begotten  from  above,"  to 
be  "  the  workmanship  of  God,  created  anew  in 
Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works." 

These  expressions  characterize  believers  as 
those  who  have  been  made  new  by  the  spirit  of 
God.  Their  personal  identity  remains  undis- 
turbed, their  conscious  existence  flows  on  with- 
out interruption,  their  mental  and  moral  faculties 
are  still  the  same ;  yet  all  things  have  become 
new  ;  unreason  has  given  place  to  reason, 
spiritual  blindness  to  insight,  unbelief  to  trust, 
selfishness  to  love,  alienation  from  God  to  fel- 
lowship with  him ;  the  spirit  has  been  purified 
and  established  in  harmony  and  peace  and  God; 
gales  from  heaven  breathe  upon  it,  divine  influ- 
ences pervade  it,  angels  of  light  minister  unto  it, 
and  God  circumfuses  and  fills  it  with  his  pres- 
ence.    This  is  the  normal  and  proper  life  of  a 


DEATH    AXD    LIFE.  51 

rational  being.  Hence  the  beloved  disciple  could 
saj;  "  In  liim  was  lifC;  and  the  life  was  the  light 
of  men;"  for  spiritual  life,  light,  and  blessed- 
ness are  almost  equivalent  terms.  Hence,  also, 
the  new  condition  of  the  believer  —  the  light, 
and  love,  and  trust  of  his  soul,  are  said  to 
be  formed,  created,  begotten,  by  the  Father  of 
Spirits.  Hence,  too,  our  final  reply  to  the  ob- 
jection, which  was  named  on  a  previous  page, 
to  our  inference  from  Paul's  language  in  the 
15th  of  Corinthians.  And  hence,  lastly,  a  justi- 
fication of  the  view  which  we  have  taken  of 
death,  the  penalty  of  sin. 

To  recapitulate :  We  have  found  reason  to 
believe  (1)  that  the  soul  of  man  was  made  orig- 
inally incorruptible,  and    his  body    con-iijjtible ; 

(2)  that  the  penal  results  of  sin,  which  are  ex- 
pressed by  the  term  death,  were  provided  for  in 
the  original  constitution  of  both  soul  and  body ; 

(3)  that  these  results  consisted  of  suffering  and 
loss,  the  soul  experiencing  the  evils  which  attend 
and  follow  moral  darkness  and  separation  from 
God,  and  the  body  those  which  accompany  the 
process  of  dissolution ;  (4)  that  the  all-comprehend- 
ing penalty  of  sin  was,  however,  the  ruin  and 
misery  of  the  soul,  the  dissolution  of  the  body 


52  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

being  no  more  than  the  attending  satellite  of  the 
great  and  central  evil  ;  and  (5)  that  the  death  of 
the  soul  took  place  immediately  after  the  fall, 
being  a  state  of  misery  which  naturally  and 
normally  culminates  in  eternal  woe. 


SECTION    III. 

THE  INTERMEDLITE  STATE. 

PROOF  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS  IN  THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE  —  (1)  FROM 
THE  WORDS  OF  CHRIST  ;  (2)  FROM  THE  WORDS  OF  PETER ;  (3)  FROM 
THE  WORDS  OF  PAUL ;  (4)  FROM  THE  WORDS  OF  CHRIST.  —  OBJECTIONS 
TO    THIS— (1)  FROM  SCRIPTURE;  AND   (2)   FROM  REASON. 

Haying  learned  from  the  word  of  God  that 
death,  the  penalty  of  sin,  falls  chiefly  upon  the 
soul,  and  consists,  for  the  present,  in  separation 
from  God  rather  than  extinction  of  conscious 
being,  we  must  now  carry  forward  our  investiga- 
tion to  the  state  of  unbelievers  during  the  period 
which  elapses  between  the  dying  and  the  rising 
again  of  the  body.  The  Scriptures  teach,  as  we 
believe,  that  the  souls  of  impenitent  men  con- 
tinue still,  in  the  transitional  state  to  be  conscious 
and  miserable ;  and  it  will  be  our  duty  in  the 
present  section  to  exhibit,  partially  at  least, 
their  testimony  on  this  point. 

In  our  Lord's  account  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus,  it  is  said  :  '-  And  it  came  to  pass  that 
5^ 


54  STATE   OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

the  beggar  died,  and  was  carried  by  the  angels 
into  Abraham's  bosom ;  the  rich  man  also  died 
and  was  buried ;  and  in  hades  he  lifted  up  his 
eyes,  being  in  torments,"  etc.^  The  limits  as- 
signed to  the  present  essay  do  not  permit  us  to 
review  and  estimate  in  detail  the  various  hypoth- 
eses which  have  been  made  respecting  the  im- 
port of  this  passage ;  but  the  result  of  a  some- 
what careful  survey  is  simply  this:  that  the 
most  obvious  meaning  of  Christ's  language  is  its 
real  meaning ;  that  no  amount  of  ingenuity,  no 
keenness  of  spiritual  vision,  can  discover  any 
occult  sense  in  this  language,  or  dissipate  the 
impression  which  it  makes  at  once  upon  a 
thoughtful  mind.  Says  Dr.  Whately  of  the  pas- 
sage :  "  It  seems  to  imply,  indeed,  very  plainly, 
that  there  is  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments, .  .  .  and  also  that  those  who  have 
been  devoted  to  the  good  things  and  enjoyments 
of  this  world  will  have  no  share  in  those  of  the 
world  to  come,  and  will  regret,  wlicn  it  is  too 
late,  their  not  having  '  laid  up  for  tlicmselves 
treasure  in  heaven.' "^  Very  true ;  but  is  this 
all  ?  We  think  not.  If  it  teaches  so  much,  it 
teaches  still  more ;  it  endorses  the  well-known 
doctrine  of  the  Pharisees  as  to  the  conscious 

1  Luke  xvi.  19-31.  2  Whately's  Future  State,  p.  57. 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  55 

existence  of  human  souls  after  death^  making  no 
distinction  at  this  point  between  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked.  Nor  is  the  testimony  of  our 
Saviour  weakened  by  supposing  his  words  to 
be  a  parable;  for  the  dialogue  between  Dives 
and  Abraham,  the  positive  misery  of  the  former 
and  the  implied  blessedness  of  the  latter,  are 
too  prominent  features  of  the  supposed  parable 
to  be  reckoned  mere  drapery  without  any  spe- 
cial significance.  It  will  not  be  extravagant  to 
assert,  on  the  strength  of  this  parable,  that  pre- 
vious to  the  final  day  the  impenitent  dead  are 
fully  conscious,  are  in  a  state  of  suffering,  are 
beyond  the  reach  of  help,  and  have  no  valid  plea 
to  offer  against  the  justice  of  their  doom.  For, 
according  to  the  representation  of  Christ,  the 
rich  man  had  brothers  living  upon  earth ;  he  was 
able  to  converse  with  Abraham;  he  spoke  of 
being  "  tormented  in  this  flame ;  "  and  his  seem- 
ing reflection  upon  the  goodness  of  God  was 
repelled  by  the  significant  words :  "  If  they  hear 
not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they 
be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the  dead."^ 

1  We  would  here  call  attention  to  an  excellent  article  on  "  The 
Place  and  Condition  of  the  Departed,"  by  Prof.  Griffin,  in  the  Bib. 
Sac.  vol.  XIII.  p.  153,  sq.;  to  an  article  on  "The  Intennediate 
State,"  in  the  Chr.  Rev.  vol.  XX.  p.  381,  sq. ;  to  an  article  on  "  The 
Intermediate  State  and  the  Punishment  of  the  Wicked,"  in  the 


56  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

To  destroy  the  force  of  tins  passage,  great 
stress  has  sometimes  been  laid  upon  the  fact 
that  both  the  rich  mau  and  Abraham  are  repre- 
sented as  having  bodies,  wliich  is  quite  incon- 
sistent with  a  proper  idea  of  the  intermediate 
state.  But  it  may  well  be  doubted,  whether 
they  are  represented  as  having  bodies  in  any 
other  way  than  God  is  said  to  have  hands  and 
feet,  and  nearly  all  the  members  of  a  human 
body.  If,  however,  they  were,  this  could  hardly, 
with  our  limited  knowledge  of  the  future  life,  be 
pronounced  inconsistent  with  the  proper  idea  of 
an  intermediate  state.  "  If,  when  parts  of  the 
body  are  removed,  we  still  believe  that  we  pos- 
sess those  limbs,  and  feel  pain  in  them,  why 
may  not  the  disembodied  spirit  still  subjectively 
exist  in,  and  feel  the  sensations  of,  that  corporeal 
system  from  which  it  is  temporarily  separated  ?  "^ 
And  besides,  it  may  be  questioned,  whether 
those  who  assume  the  existence  of  the  human 
soul,  or  of  any  created  intelligence,  apart  from 
a  material  organ,  as  simple  spirit  like  God,  do 
not  go  beyond  the  record.     It  certainly  behoves 

Meth.  r.cv.  vol.  XXXIV.  p.  240,  sq.;  to  Ilertzog's  "  Real-Encyklo- 
pscdie  fur  prot.  Tlicolosie  und  Kirche,"  Bd.  V.  s.  v.  Hades;  and  to 
Prof.  Stuart's  "  Essays  on  Future  Punishment,"  p.  76,  sq. 

1  Alford,  s?/Z>  loco.     See,  on  this  passaj^e,  the  commentaries  of  Cal- 
vin, De  Wette,  Meyer,  Bengel,  and  Kiplcy. 


THE   INTERMEDIATE   STATE.  57 

every  man  to  speculate  with  great  caution  on  a 
matter  which  is  not  distinctly  treated  in  the 
word  of  God,  and  which  lies  altogether  beyond 
the  range  of  our  experience  in  this  life. 

Turning  now  to  the  language  of  Peter,  we  ob- 
tain additional  evidence  that  unbelievers  are  con- 
scious during  the  intermediate  state.  He  speaks 
of  Christ  as  ''  being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh, 
but  quickened  by  the  Spirit;  in  which  also  he 
went  and  preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison  "  —  iv 
(pvlax-fi.  To  pass  over  the  questions  still  in  liti- 
gation respecting  the  import  of  this  text,  we 
believe  all  the  best  interpreters  agree  in  hold- 
ing the  spirits  here  mentioned  to  be  the  souls 
of  departed  men,  probably  the  souls  of  those 
who  perished  in  the  Noachian  deluge.  Now  it 
seems  to  us  scarcely  less  than  absurd  to  speak 
of  unconscious  spirits  as  under  guard,  in  prison. 
Nothing  short  of  an  express  declaration,  made 
by  an  inspired  teacher,  that  a  state  of  profound 
unconsciousness  was  itself  the  prison  in  which 
they  were  guarded,  would  seem  to  justify  such 
an  exposition. 

But  we  are  not  restricted  in  this  part  of  our 
essay  to  those  passages  which  speak  of  the  im- 
penitent dead ;  for  it  is  commonly  admitted  that 
both  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  are  conscious, 


58  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

or  both  unconscious,  between  death  and  tlie  re- 
surrection. Hence  every  expression  of  the 
Scriptures,  which  proves  the  consciousness  of 
believers  during  the  period  in  question,  proves 
that  of  unbelievers  also. 

Let  us  then  consider  the  words  of  Paul  in  his 
second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  :  "  Being  confi- 
dent then  alwavs,  and  knowino:  that  while  at 
home  in  the  body  we  are  absent  from  the  Lord ; 
for  we  walk  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight;  we  are 
confident,  I  say,  and  arc  well  pleased  rather  to 
migrate  out  of  the  bochj,  and  to  dwell  at  home  icith 
the  Lord.'"^  The  apostle  had  already,  in  a  pre- 
vious verse,  expressed  his  desire  to  be  clothed 
upon  with  a  celestial  body.  And  he  goes  on  to 
say,  in  the  verses  cited  by  us,  that  even  though 
he  should  not  be  permitted  to  enter  at  once, 
after  death,  upon  the  blessedness  of  the  final 
state  in  his  glorified  body,  he  was  nevertheless 
well  pleased  to  leave  this  present  body,  and 
dwell  at  home  with  the  Lord.  And  it  is  certain 
tliat  unconscious  existence,  or  virtual  non-exist- 
ence, would  not  have  been  described  by  Paul  as 
a  dwelling  with  the  Lord  —  ivdi]uriaai  nQo;  top 
Kininr.  Alford,  wlio  tliiiiks  the  second  cominoc 
of  Christ  was  anticipated  by  Paul  as  possible  in 

1  2  Cor.  V.  6-8. 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  59 

his  OTm  day,  paraphrases  thus  :  '-  Even  if  a  disso- 
lution of  the  body  be  imminent,  —  even  that, 
though  not  according  to  our  wish,  does  not 
destroy  our  confidence ;  for  so  sensible  are  we 
that  dwelling  in  the  body  is  a  state  of  banish- 
ment from  the  Lord,  that  we  prefer  to  it  even 
the  alternative  of  dissolution,  bringing  us,  as  it 
will,  into  his  presence."  If  the  apostle  pre- 
ferred a  state  of  absolute  unconsciousness  to 
life  in  this  world,  merely  because  he  would  have 
no  sense  of  the  lapse  of  ages,  but  would  seem 
instantly  to  awake  with  Christ,  he  plainly  disre- 
garded his  own  best  good  and  the  best  good  of 
mankind.  For,  "  by  continuing  in  life,  he  would 
have  made  further  proficiency  in  the  Christian 
life,  would  have  done  more  for  the  honor  of 
God,  and  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  there- 
fore would  have  been  entitled  by  promise,  to  a 
greater  degree  of  happiness  in  the  resurrection 
state;  and  this  greater  degree  of  happiness 
would  have  been  extended  to  all  eternity.  So 
that,  in  reality,  the  apostle  would  have  been  an 
infinite  loser  by  death  at  that  time.  He  would 
have  lost  a  certain  degree  of  happiness,  doubt- 
less equal  to  the  whole  heavenly  happiness  of 
some  saints ;  and  this  degree  of  happiness,  run- 
ning through  eternity,  would  be  a  sum  of  happi- 


60  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

ness  as  truly  infinite  as  the  whole  eternal  hap- 
piness of  some  real  saints.  As,  therefore,  those 
saints,  by  the  loss  of  their  whole  heavenly  hap- 
piness, would  sustain  an  infinite  loss,  so  would 
the  apostle,  if  he  had  lost  that  additional  degree 
of  happiness  to  which  he  would  have  been  enti- 
tled by  his  continued  life  and  usefulness.  We 
can  make  nothing  of  this  text  but  upon  the  sup- 
position that  his  soul  died  not,  or  did  not  fall 
into  a  torpor  with  his  body."  ^  And,  again,  his 
removal  by  death  would  put  an  end  to  his  direct 
efforts  for  the  good  of  the  church.  Bands  of 
Christians,  looking  to  him  for  counsel  and  en- 
couragement, had  been  formed  in  various  parts 
of  the  Roman  Empire  ,*  and  never  were  his  per- 
sonal services  more  necessary  to  their  establish- 
ment in  truth  and  spiritual  progress,  than  when 
he  was  writing  this  very  epistle.  Yet,  accord- 
ing to  the  hypothesis  of  unconsciousness  during 
the  intermediate  state,  the  magnanimous  apostle 
was  quite  willing  to  leave  these  lambs,  which 
had  been  entrusted  by  the  Great  Shepherd  to 
his  care,  for  the  sake  of  seeming  to  be  sooner 
with  the  Lord  !  nothing  more. 

And  this  remark  bears  the   mind   away  to 
another  passage  in  the  writings  of  Paul,  where 

1  Works  of  Edwards  the  Younger,  vol.  II.  p.  530. 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  61 

he  distinctly  recognizes  the  value  of  his  pres- 
ence to  the  churches.  Writing  to  the  Philip- 
pians,  he  uses  these  words:  "Because  for  me 
to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain.  But  if  to 
live  in  the  flesh  —  if  this  is  to  me  the  fruit  of 
labor,  —  then  what  I  should  choose  I  know  not. 
Now  I  am  perplexed  by  the  two,  having  the  de- 
sire to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  for  it  is 
much  more  than  better ;  but  to  abide  in  the  flesh 
is  more  needful  for  you."  ^  In  his  manuscript 
notes  upon  the  epistle  to  the  Philippians,  Pro- 
fessor Hackett  says  of  the  word  uvulvuai  [to 
dejMrt) :  "  It  is  strictly  a  nautical  term,  mean- 
ing '  to  cast  loose,'  to  '  weigh  anchor,'  in  order 
to  put  to  sea."  The  manner  in  which  avv  Xqigto) 
eiPUL  follows  this  term,  would  lead  us  to  suppose 
that  the  apostle  regarded  the  one  event  as  im- 
mediately subsequent  to  the  other.  It  is  not 
easy  to  see  how  he  could  have  expressed  him- 
self in  a  way  more  inevitably  suggesting  that 
idea,  than  the  one  which  he  has  adopted  here. 
Had  he  believed  that  an  interval  of  unconscious- 
ness was  to  elapse  after  death  before  the  soul 
was  to  be  present  with  Christ,  would  he  not  be 
likely,  in  such  a  connection,  to  have  intimated 
that  belief,  or  at  least  to  have  avoided  language 

1  Phil.  i.  21-24. 


62  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

SO  liable  to  mislead  the  reader  ?  And  on  the 
whole  passage  he  makes  the  following  remarks : 
"  It  may  be  well  to  notice  here  the  nature  of  the 
struggle  in  Paul's  mind,  between  his  desire  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ,  and  his  anxiety  to 
labor  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  men.  It  is 
difficult  to  see  how  he  could  have  experienced 
any  such  struggle,  unless  he  believed  that  death, 
which  released  him  from  the  toils  of  this  life, 
was  to  introduce  him  at  once  to  the  presence  of 
Christ  and  the  bliss  of  heaven. 

"  On  the  supposition  that  he  expected  after 
death  to  remain,  for  an  indefinite  time,  uncon- 
scious in  the  grave  until  the  resurrection,  how, 
with  his  characteristic  zeal  for  the  salvation  of 
men,  and  his  contempt  of  trials  and  dangers  in 
the  pursuit  of  that  object,  could  he  have  hesi- 
tated for  a  moment  to  wish  to  live  as  long  as 
possible,  since  the  longer  lie  lived  the  more  he 
would  be  able  to  accomplish  for  the  cause  of  the 
Redeemer,  and  since  he  could  gain  nothing  of 
a  permanent  nature  by  an  earlier  death  which 
he  would  regard  as  worthy  of  a  moment's  com- 
parison with  the  value  of  his  labors  to  his  fel- 
low-men ?  On  the  contrary,  if  we  suppose  that 
he  regarded  his  attainment  of  the  rewards  and 
the  joys  of  heaven  as  simultaneous  with    his 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  63 

departure  from  life;  we  have  then  a  natural  ex- 
planation of  his  perplexity.  He  might  well 
desire  that  a  consummation  fraught  with  such 
gain  to  himself  personally  might  arrive  soon,  and 
feel  that  nothing  could  reconcile  him  to  the  idea 
of  remaining  longer  absent  from  Christ,  except 
the  importance  of  his  ministry  in  preparing 
others  for  the  same  glorious  destination." 

To  the  testimony  of  Paul  may  be  added  the 
language  of  Christ  himself.  When  one  of  the 
robbers  who  were  crucified  with  him  offered 
the  prayer,  "  Lord,  remember  me  when  thou 
comest  in  thy  kingdom,"  the  Saviour  replied, 
"Verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  to-day  shalt  thou  be 
with  me  in  paradise."^  Comment  on  this  de- 
claration seems  to  be  almost  superfluous.  To 
suppose  that  Christ,  in  reply  to  such  a  petition, 
merely  reminded  the  dying  robber  that  they 
were  both  to  pass  that  very  day  from  the  land 
of  the  living  into  a  state  of  total  unconscious- 
ness, of  virtual  non-existence,  is  most  unreason- 
able. We  can  hardly  divine  the  process  by 
which  any  one  can  be  led  to  endorse  such  a 
view.  Moreover,  the  primary  sense  of  the  word 
paradise,  namely,  a  "park"  or  "pleasure-gar- 
den," and  the  use  of  this  term  by  Josephus,  by 

1  Luke  xxiii.  43. 


64  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

tlic  Seventy,  by  Paul,  and  by  John,  are  utterly 
inconsistent  with  such  a  view  of  our  passage. 
Indeed,  it  is  quite  certain  from  the  language  of 
Christ,  that  the  believing  robber  was  to  enter, 
that  very  day,  immediately  after  death,  upon  a 
state  of  conscious  blessedness  in  the  presence 
of  Christ.  Dr.  Whately  appears  to  concede 
this,  but  undertakes  to  destroy  the  value  of  this 
concession  by  suggesting  that,  by  reason  of  his 
extraordinary  faith  and  the  peculiar  time  of  his 
death,  the  converted  robber  was  permitted  to 
anticipate  the  resurrection.  ^  With  similar  in- 
genuity he  advances  the  suggestion,  that  Moses 
did  not  actually  die,  but  was  translated,  like 
Enoch  and  Elijah.  But  these  conjectures  seem 
to  be  unsupported  either  by  reason  or  by  the 
word  of  God,  and  are  advanced,  it  is  not  severe 
to  say,  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  save  a  doc- 
trine which  is  not,  we  suppose,  taught  in  the 
New  Testament.  - 

"If,  however,  it  be  said  the  meaning  is,  that,  as 
the  thief  would  be  conscious  of  nothing  between 
death  and  the  resurrection,  his  being  with  Christ 
at  the  resurrection  would  seem  to  him  to  have 


1  Future  State,  p.  Gl  sq.;  247  sq. 

2  In  addition  to  tlie  passages  considered  above,  see  also  Matt.  xvii. 
3 ;  cf.  Mark  ix.  9 ;  and  liev.  vi.  9-11. 


THE    INTERMEDIATE   STATE.  65 

been  the  same  day  on  which  he  died,  or  imme- 
diately after  his  death,  I  answer,  this  would  be 
to  talk  without  example,  and  in  a  manner  not 
intelligible  to  mankind  in  general.  Would  it 
not  be  unintelligible,  and  without  example,  to 
tell  a  man  who  had  been  a  whole  day  in  a  sound 
sleep,  and  who  was  wholly  ignorant  of  the  time 
which  had  elapsed  during  his  sleep,  that  it  was 
but  a  minute  since  he  had  fallen  into  sleep  ?  Or 
would  there  be  any  propriety  or  truth  in  saying, 
that  Lazarus,  who  lay  dead  four  days,  was  raised 
on  the  same  day,  and  even  immediately  after  his 
death  ?  Not  an  instance  of  such  language  can 
be  found  in  all  the  Scriptures,  nor  in  any  ap- 
proved uninspired  author.  Yet  this  would  have 
been  just  as  true  and  proper,  on  the  ground  of 
this  objection,  as  our  Lord's  telling  the  thief 
on  the  cross,  ^  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me 
in  paradise.'  Lazarus,  on  the  hypothesis  now 
under  consideration,  would  no  more  have  per- 
ceived any  time  between  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion, than  the  thief  would  have  perceived  time 
between  his  death  and  the  general  resurrec- 
tion, "i 

But  a  plausible  objection  to  the  view  now  pre- 
sented has  been  drawn  from  Christ's  language 

1  Edwards'  Works  (the  younger),  vol.  II.  p.  531. 

6* 


66  STATE  OP   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

to  tlic  Sadducccs:  "As  touching  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  have  ye  not  read  that  which  was 
spoken  unto  you  by  God,  saying,  I  am  the  God 
of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
God  of  Jacob?  God  is  not  the  God  of  the 
dead,  but  of  the  living."  ^  Dobney  remarks  on 
this  language  :  "  Observe,  the  question  just  then 
opened  was  not  concerning  the  scjyaratc  and  con- 
scious existence  of  the  soul  after  death;  and,  there- 
fore, it  was  not  to  prove  this  that  he  showed 
that  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  had  not  utterly 
ceased  to  be.  His  argument,  to  be  satisfactory 
against  that  particular  class  of  objectors  before 
him  and  demonstrative  of  the  point  he  had 
undertaken  to  prove,  shows  the  living  again, 
which  he  predicted,  to  be  dependent  on  a  resur- 
rection. To  deduce  from  the  title  God  had 
assumed,  that,  therefore,  since  he  is  not  the  God 
of  the  dead  but  of  the  living,  the  patriarchs 
were  still  existent,  in  a  separate  state,  would 
not  have  met  the  case  at  all,  iuiless  the  living 
after  death  be  itself  the  resurrection.  His  argu- 
ment, strictly  logical  when  correctly  stated,  is 
this :  As  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  of 
those  who  liave  finally  and  forever  ceased  to  be, 

1  Matt  xxii.  31,  32;  Cf.  Luke  xxi.  38. 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  67 

there  must  be  a  resurrection  of  tliose  of  whom 
he  calls  himself  the  God."  ^ 

The  Sadducees,  it  will  be  remembercdj  held 
that  "  there  is  no  resurrection,  nor  angel  or 
spirit;"^  and  that  "the  souls  of  men  perish 
with  their  bodies."  ^  It  was  a  central  dogma  of 
their  system,  that  man  is  entirely  dependent  on 
bodily  organization  for  conscious  existence ;  so 
that  when  the  corporeal  frame  is  dissolved  by 
death,  he  really  ceases  to  be.  And,  according 
to  Mr.  Dobney,  this  was  also  the  doctrine  of 
our  Saviour ;  otherwise  his  statement,  "  Now 
that  the  dead  are  raised,  even  Moses  showed  at 
the  bush,"  was  a  mistake,  and  his  reasoning  fal- 
lacious. But  we  cannot  see  that  he  has  made 
good  this  position.  For  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  doctrines  of  a  separate  existence 
of  the  soul  after  death,  and  of  a  future  resurrec- 
tion, were  always  united  in  the  Jewish  mind; 
that  the  Pharisees  and  Essenes  affirmed  both 
these  doctrines,  while  the  Sadducees  denied  them 
both ;  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  are  nowhere 
in  the  New  Testament  represented  as  agreeing 
with  the  Sadducees,  even  in  part,  and  that  the 

1  "  The  Scripture  Doctrine  of  Future  Punishment,"  etc.,  by  H. 
H.  Dobney,  p.  154. 

2  Acts  xxiii.  8.  3  Josephus  Antiq.  xviii.  1-5. 


68  STATE    OF    THE    IMPEXITEXT   DEAD. 

only  alternative  allowed  by  our  passage  is,  that 
the  patriarchs  were  pronounced  "a/ii-e,"  either 
because,  tliough  actually  and  completely  dead,  they 
had  not  finally  ceased  to  be,  since  God  would 
raise  them  into  life  hereafter,  or  because  they 
were  tndy  alive  and  conscious,  but  not  in  their 
full,  complex  nature  —  which  fact  was  really  a 
divine  prediction  and  assurance  of  the  resur- 
rection —  and,  bearing  this  in  mind,  it  will  surely 
be  easy  for  any  fair  investigator  to  decide  in 
favor  of  the  latter  as  the  only  just  view  of 
Chi'ist's  language.  And  if  this  decision  be  ac- 
cepted, how  characteristic  and  profound  was  the 
answer  of  Jesus  !  His  argument  was  far  deeper 
and  more  comprehensive  than  the  single  point 
brought  forward  by  his  adversaries  required. 
He  replied  to  the  Sadducees  as  a  judge,  rather 
than  as  a  lawyer.  He  proved  their  system  to 
be  rotten  at  the  core.  From  a  passage  which 
no  mere  logician  would  have  pronounced  rel- 
evant to  the  question  at  issue,  he  drew  a  con- 
clusion which  destroyed  their  whole  system,  root 
and  branch. 

To  present  the  matter  in  another  form  :  The 
Sadducees  assailed  tlie  whole  doctrine  of  a  fu- 
ture life,  whether  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body, 
by  assailing  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection, 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  69 

for  the  latter  doctrine  was  an  integral  part  of 
the  former.  To  use  the  words  of  a  friend,  it 
was  tacitly  assumed  by  them  and  by  Christ, 
"  That  there  is  such  a  connection  between  the 
resurrection  of  the  body  and  the  spiritual  exist- 
ence of  men  between  death  and  the  resurrec- 
tion, that  any  proof  of  the  one,  is  pari  iiassu  a 
proof  of  the  other." ^  Our  Saviour,  therefore, 
first  answered  their  cavil  against  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body,  by  correcting  their  gross  and 
false  idea  of  a  "  spiritual "  body,  and  then  proved 
out  of  the  Scriptures  the  conscious  existence 
of  Moses  and  the  patriarchs  long  after  their  de- 
cease, which  fact  was  a  prophecy  and  pledge,  and 
valid  proof  of  the  resurrection.  ^ 

Further,  the   dead   are   spoken  of  as  those 

iRev-  J.  T.  Smith,  of  Amherst,  Mass. 

2  See  also  the  Commentaries,  especially  those  of  Meyer,  De  Wette, 
Alford,  and  Bengel.  Says  Schottgen  ad  Matt.  xxii.  32,  "  Nervus 
hiijiis  argumentntionis  Christi  a  Tkeohgis  nostris probe  pcr$pectus  est. 
Deum  exim  alicujus  esse  notat  in  fcedere  cum  ipso  versari.  Sic 
in  V.  T.  Bens  tantum  erai  Israelitarum  Deus,  in  N.  T.  eiiam  gen- 
tiUum.  Roman.  Hi.  29,  hoc  est,  olim  cum  solis  Jtidceis  fccdus  hahehat., 
jam  vero  cum  omnibus  nntionibus  in  toto  terrarum  orbe.  Jam  Deus  se 
Deum  Abrahami,  Isaaci,  et  Jacobi  dicit,  longo  intervallo  post  mortem 
ipsorum,  h.  e.  fatebatur,  se  adJmc  in  fcedere  cum  ipsis  versari,  ne- 
cesse  erat  igitur,  ut  tunc  temporis  adhuc  in  vicis  esseni,  respectu  sell,  ad 
animam  habito.  Quia  vero  anima  abrahami  non  est  totus 
Abahamus,  sed  tantum  pars  ipsius,  superest,  ut  etiam  cor- 
pus SPEJi  iiABEAT  reviviscexdi,  et  Veritas  JicBC  verborum  divinorum 
inconvulsa  maneat.  IIoc  est  argumenium  Christi  pro  resurrectione 
mortiuyi'um.''^ 


70  STATE    OF    THE   IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

"  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth,"  and 
sleepj  it  is  urged,  involves  unconsciousness.  On 
this  objection  we  remark,  first,  that  men  who 
believe  in  the  consciousness  of  the  soul  after 
death,  have  been  wont  for  ages  to  speak  of 
dying  as  falling  asleep,  and  of  the  dead  as 
those  who  have  fallen  asleep,  without  perceiv- 
ing any  absurdity  or  incongruity  in  their  lan- 
guage. This  fact  alone  is  a  full  reply  to  the 
objection ;  for  Christ  and  his  apostles  used  not 
the  language  of  philosophy,  but  of  common  life. 
And,  secondly,  that  sleep  and  death  resemble 
each  other ;  not,  however,  because  the  soul  is  un- 
conscious in  either,  but  because  the  bodily  senses 
are  closed,  the  windows  by  which  the  spirit  looks 
forth  upon  the  world,  tlie  avenues  by  which  the 
world  approaches  it,  the  mysterious  arches  which 
in  this  life  span  the  gulf  between  mind  and  mat- 
ter, are  all  gone  or  impassible ;  so  that  if  the 
mind  is  active,  as  in  dreaming,  this  action  is  un- 
restrained by  the  real  condition  of  the  external 
world,  by  the  true  relations  of  the  dreamer  to 
material  objects.  Hence  the  exceeding  difficulty 
often  times  of  recalling  the  action  of  sleep,  when 
the  senses  are  refreshed  and  revived  and  re- 
opened. The  trutli  seems  to  be  this :  that  the 
spirit  is  ever  active,  though  in  different  states  of 


THE   INTERMEDIATE   STATE.  71 

consciousness,  which  may  or  may  not  be  connected 
here.  Even  Dr.  Whately  admits  that  the  mind 
probably  does  not  cease  to  think  in  the  profound- 
est  sleep.  It  is,  therefore,  we  have  good  reason 
to  believe,  the  body  alone  which  truly  rests  in 
sleep ;  it  is  the  senses,  the  nerves,  the  organs  of 
the  soul  for  this  present  life  in  connection  with 
the  world,  which  are  directly  concerned  in  slum- 
ber ;  and  so  it  is  in  death.  The  body  sleeps  in 
the  dust  of  the  earth  until  the  last  day ;  but  the 
soul  is  not  there ;  it  has  passed  into  a  different 
sphere  of  action  and  consciousness.  ^ 

The  fact  also  may  be  worthy  of  attention, 
that  only  "  the  dead  in  Christ  "  are  said  by  New 
Testament  writers  to  be  asleep.  And  from  this 
usage  of  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles  it  may  be 
right  to  infer  that  the  dead  are  described  in  the 
book  of  Daniel  as  those  "  that  sleep  in  the  dust 
of  the  earth,"  because  the  righteous  were  first 
and  prominently  in  the  speaker's  mind.  This 
view  is  favored  by  the  context.  And  if  it  be 
correct,  we  are  only  to  inquire  why  the  'penitent 
dead  are  spoken  of  as  being  asleep.  And  the 
answer  may  be  this :  They  have  passed  from  a 

1  See  a  luminous  discussion  of  "Consciousness,"  in  Sir  Wm. 
Hamilton's  "Lectures  on  Metaphysics."  Leo's XI. to  XIX.,  espe- 
cially Lee.  XVII. 


72  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

State  of  wearisome  toil  and  conflict  to  one  of 
sweet  repose,  which,  again,  is  to  be  followed  by  a 
more  active  and  blessed  life. 

And,  finally,  a  general  judgment  is  foretold  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  this  is  pronounced  inconsist- 
ent with  the  doctrine  of  human  consciousness  be- 
tween death  and  the  resurrection.  Such  a  state- 
ment we  are  not  required  to  answer ;  for  we  are 
by  no  means  competent  to  explain  the  ways  of 
God.  As  the  heavens  are  high  above  the  earth, 
so  are  his  ways  above  our  ways,  and  his  thoughts 
above  our  thoughts.  We  are  content  to  abide 
by  the  testimony  of  his  word.  Still,  it  may  be 
remarked,  that  a  ruler  might  certainly  for  wise 
reasons  defer  indefinitely  the  trial  of  a  criminal 
whose  guilt  was  certain,  whose  custody  was  sure, 
and  whose  hope  of  ultimate  acquittal  was  nearly 
or  quite  taken  away ;  and  so  also  God,  for  aught 
we  can  see,  may  properly  reserve  the  wicked  for  a 
final  and  solemn  adjudication,  not  to  assure  them 
of  their  guilt  and  condemnation,  but  to  exhibit 
before  all  finite  beings  the  ground  of  his  de- 
cision and  the  righteousness  of  his  administra- 
tion. We  can  imagine  no  better  way  for  him  to 
take  in  making  himself  and  his  glory  known. 
It  seems  to  us  eminently  suited  to  the  proper 
conduct  of  a  moral  government,  perfectly  adapted 


THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE.  73 

to  complete  the  revelation  of  the  divine  char- 
acter, as  concerned  in  the  origin  and  final  des- 
tiny of  our  race.  And  even  should  it  prove  that 
the  wicked  do  not  come  to  a  full  knowledge  and 
sense  of  their  guilt  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  an 
absolute  assurance  of  their  hopeless  nun  on  the 
other,  until  the  last  judgment,  we  do  not  see 
how  this  could  affect  materially  the  question  at 
issue.'"  No  party  would  be  wronged ;  the  guilty 
would  be  treated  as  such,  though  perhaps  cheat- 
ing themselves  still  with  the  faint  hope  of  deliv- 
erance, and  the  righteous  would  be  treated  as 
such,  though  not  perhaps  enjoying  all  the  assur- 
ance and  blessedness  of  their  final  state. 

We  have  never  seen  any  other  even  plausible 
objection,  drawn  from  the  word  of  God,  to  the 
consciougiiess  of  departed  spirits  in  the  interme- 
diate state,  and  therefore  submit  the  following 
as  our  conclusion  from  the  teaching  of  Scripture, 
namely :  That  unbelievers,  as  well  as  believers, 
will  be  fully  conscious  from  the  time  of  their 
physical  death  until  the  resurrection.  And  it 
need  scarcelv  bo  remarked,  after  considerins; 
the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  that 
the  former  are  in  a  state  of  misery,  and  the  lat- 
ter in  a  state  of  blessedness. 

1  Cf.  Matt.  vii.  22,  and  xxv.  44. 

7 


SECTiON    lY. 

THE  FINAL   STATE. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  JOSEPHUS  AND  TACITUS.  — TESTIMONY  OF  CHRIST  AFTER 
HIS  ASCENSION.  — HIS  TESTIMONY  WHILE  YET  ON  EARTH.  —  REPLY  TO 
ANOTHER   INTERPRETATION   OF  HIS  LANGUAGE. 

In  the  last  section  we  had  occasion  to  mention 
the  well-known  doctrine  of  the  Pharisees  as  to 
the  conscious  existence  of  souls  after  death. 
Before  adducing  the  testimony  of  Scripture  in 
respect  to  the  final  state  of  unbelievers,  it  may  be 
well  to  lay  before  our  readers  the  account  which 
Josephus,  a  contemporary  of  the  apostles,  gives 
of  the  doctrine  held  by  Pharisees  and  Essenes 
on  the  point  to  be  examined.  Their  opinions 
are  of  no  weight  per  sc ;  yet  a  knowledge  of  them 
may  put  us  in  the  position  of  those  who  listened 
to  Christ,  and  may  thus  enable  us  the  better  to 
understand  his  teaching.  In  so  far  as  lie  appro- 
priated, without  explanation,  the  language  of 
any  large  class  of  his  hearers,  when  alluding 
to  the  condition  of  men  beyond  the  grave,  he 


THE   FINAL   STATE.  75 

thereby  and  to  that  extent  endorsed  their  belief 
as  correct.  This  will  readily  be  admitted  by  all 
who  recognize  his  authority  as  a  religious  teach- 
er, and  with  such  only  are  we  at  present  con- 
cerned. If  any  are  prepared  to  assume  that 
Christ  had  no  certain  doctrines  to  express,  no 
well-defined  and  reliable  truths  to  utter  in  the 
ears  of  a  lost  race,  for  them  all  aids  to  interpre- 
tation derived  from  the  use  of  language  by  the 
Jews  may  be  superfluous ;  the  pictures  and  visions 
of  a  poet  and  seer^  may  be  comprehended  at  once 
by  the  "  poet's  eye,"  or  "  faculty  divine,"  but  for 
others  the  help  of  history  and  philology  will  ever 
be  necessary. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  the 
Pharisees  held  "  that  all  souls  are  incorrup- 
tible, but  the  souls  of  good  men  are  only 
removed  into  other  bodies,  while  the  souls  of 
bad  men  are  subject  to  eternal  punislunent."  2 
Again:  they  "believe  that  souls  have  an  im- 
mortal vigor  in  them,  and  that  under  the  earth 
there  will  be  rewards  and  punishments,  accord- 
ing as  they  have  lived  virtuously  or  \aciously  in 
this  life ;  and  the  latter  are  to  be  detained  in  an 

1  We  refer  to  the  discourse  of  Eev.  T.  S.  King,  entitled,  "  The 
Doctrine  of  eternal  Punishment  unchristian." 

2  Wars  of  the  Jews,  II.  8, 14. 


76  STATE    OF    THE    LMPEXITEXT    DEAD. 

everlasting  prison,  but  the  former  sliall  have 
power  to  revive  and  live  again.  .  .  .  But 
the  doctrine  of  the  Sadducees  is  this  :  That  souls 
die  with  the  bodies,"  etc.  ^  And,  in  another 
place :  '-  Smiling  in  their  agonies,  and  deriding 
the  efforts  of  their  persecutors,  they  cheerfully 
resigned  tlicir  souls,  assured  of  receiving  them 
again.  For  the  opinion  obtains  among  them,  that 
bodies  indeed  arc  corruptible,  and  the  matter  of 
them  not  permanent,  but  that  souls  continue  ex- 
empt from  death  forever :  and  that,  emanating 
from  the  most  subtle  ether,  they  are  enfolded  in 
bodies,  as  prisons,  to  which  they  are  drawn  by 
some  natural  spell.  But  when  loosed  from  the 
bonds  of  the  flesh,  as  if  released  from  a  long 
captivity,  they  rejoice,  and  are  borne  upward. 
In  this  opinion,  harmonizing  with  the  sons  of 
Greece,  they  maintain  that  virtuous  souls  have 
their  habitation  beyond  the  ocean,  in  a  region 
oppressed  neither  with  rains,  nor  snows,  nor 
heats,  but  which  the  ever-gentle  zephyr  refresh- 
es, breathing  from  the  wave,  while  to  the  bad 
they  allot  a  gloomy  and  tempestuous  cavern,  full 
of  never-ending  punishments. 

"According  to  the  same  notion,  the  Greeks  seem 
to  me  to  apportion  to  the  brave,  whom  they  style 

1  Antiquities,  XVIII.  1,  5. 


THE    FINAL    STATE.  77 

heroes  and  demi-gods,  the  islands  of  the  blessed  ; 
but  to  the  souls  of  the  wicked,  the  place  of  the 
impious  in  hades,  where  their  legends  tell  that 
certain  persons  are  punished,  as  Sisyphus,  and 
Tantalus,  and  Ixion,  and  Tityus,  laying  it  down, 
first,  that  souls  are  immortal,  and  deriving  from 
thence  their  exhortations  to  virtue,  and  their 
dissuasives  from  vice.  For  the  good  become 
better  in  this  life  by  the  hope  of  a  reward  even 
after  death,  and  the  impetuous  passions  of  the 
evil  are  restrained  by  the  fear,  that,  though  they 
may  escape  detection  while  alive,  they  will,  after 
dissolution,  imdergo  a  deathless  punishment. 
Such  are  the  theological  views  of  the  Essenes 
concerning  the  soul — an  irresistible  attraction  to 
those  who  have  once  tasted  their  philosophy."  ^ 
Moreover,  Tacitus  affirms  of  the  Jews  that 
"  they  deem  the  souls  of  those  who  are  cut  off  in 
battle  or  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner  to  be 
eternal.  Hence  their  desire  for  offspring,  and 
their  contempt  of  death.  Dead  bodies  are 
buried,  after  the  custom  of  Egypt,  rather  than 
burned;  there  is  also  the  same  solicitude,  and 
the  same  belief  in  respect  to  the  under-world."  ^ 

1  Jewish  War  (Traill's  trans.),  II.  viii.  10,  11. 

2  "  AnIMASQUE   PRrELIO,  AUT   SUPPLICIIS  PEREMPTORUM  ^TER- 

VA8  putant.   Hinc  generandi  amor,  ei  moriendi  conteniptus.    Corjpora 

7^ 


78  STATE   OF   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

With  the  light  which  these  testimonies  shed 
upon  the  belief  prevalent  among  the  Jews,  at 
the  time  of  Christ,  in  respect  to  a  future  life,  let 
us  turn  to  the  word  of  God,  and  examine  its 
language  concerning  the  final  state  of  unbeliev- 
ers. In  the  last  book  of  the  New  Testament 
we  read :  "  And  the  devil  that  deceived  them  was 
cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,  where 
also  were  the  beast,  and  the  false  prophet,  and 
they  shall  he  tormented  day  and  night  forever  and 
ever  —  ^auavia&r^aovTUL    r]uioag    xul   vvxiog    eig    To{>g 

ai^vag  xdjv  ai(hvu)v.  Here  "  the  beast "  must  be 
undjerstood  to  signify  and  represent  real  men, 
knit  together  in  a  body,  controlled  by  a  common 
purpose,  and  setting  themselves  as  a  great  or- 
ganized power  in  opposition  to  Christ  —  a  mon- 
archy, perhaps,  yet  not  the  less  composed  of 
actual  men,  because  they  are  united  together, 
and  may  be  represented  in  the  aggregate  as  a 
single  power.  Here,  then,  is  no  image  of  im- 
personal evil,  —  "for  there  is  really  no  such  thing 
as  impersonal  evil  in  the  sense  of  moral  evil," — 
no  mere  nominalistic  idea  set  before  us  as  a 
great  beast,  but  a  compact  anti-christian  organi- 
zation, made  up  of  individuals,  and  which  can  be 

condere,  quam  cremare,  e  more  jEgtjptko;  eademque  cura,  €t  de 
in/ernis  persuasio,'"  etc.    (L.  v.  c.  5.) 


THE    FINAL    STATE.  79 

in  the  "lake  of  fire  "  only  as  the  individuals  con- 
stituting it  are  there.  A  similar  view  is  also  to 
be  taken  of  the  "  false  prophet." 

"  And  I  saw,"  proceeds  the  Revelator,  "  a  great 
white  throne,  and  him  that  sat  on  it,  from  whose 
face  the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away,  and  no 
place  was  found  for  them.  And  I  saw  the  dead, 
great  and  small,  standing  before  the  tlirone ;  and 
books  were  opened;  and  another  book  was 
opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life ;  and  the  dead 
were  judged  out  of  the  things  written  in  the 
books  according  to  their  works.  And  the  sea 
gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  it,  and  death  and 
hades  gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  them,  and 
they  were  judged  every  one  according  to  their 
works.  And  death  and  hades  were  cast  into  the 
lake  of  fire.  This  is  the  second  death,  the  lake  of 
firey  On  the  last  words  of  this  passage  Ebrard 
remarks :  "  If  death  and  hades  were  cast  into 
the  lake  of.  fire,  and  it  is  then  said,  '  This  is  the 
second  death,  the  lake  of  fire,'  the  sense  cannot 
be  that  death  in  the  abstract  is  to  be  destroyed, 
so  that  henceforth  there  shall  be  no  death  any 
more  ;  also,  that  hades  has  become  superfluous  as 
an  abode,  and  therefore  will  be  burned  up  like 
an  old  box.  For  death's  aimihilation  cannot  be  a 
second  death,  and,  besides,  the  second  death  is 


80  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

a  punishment  for  men,  ^  not  a  means  for  the 
burning  up  of  localities  and  instruments  which 
have  become  superfluous.  Still  less  can  "death" 
and  '^  hades  "  be  two  "  demons  "  (as  De  Wette 
supposes),  who  were  to  be  punished,  because 
they  had  slain  so  many  men ;  for  in  that  case 
"  the  lake  of  fire  "  itself  must  also  be  punished  ! 
Death  and  hades  are  rather  to  be  understood  in 
the  concrete  of  the  men  icho  are  found  in  them.^* 
To  nearly  the  same  effect  says  a  writer  in  the 
Christian  Review :  "  Death  has  no  separate  ex- 
istence. Hades,  indeed,  may  be  a  locality  as 
well  as  a  condition,  and  may,  therefore,  without 
incongruity,  be  represented  as  being  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire.  But  as  this  cannot  be  said  of 
death,  and  as  the  two  are  so  intimately  united, 
it  seems  preferable  to  treat  them  alike.  It  is  not 
said  that  the  dead  who  were  in  death  and  hades 
were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  but  simply  that 
death  and  hades  themselves  were  cast  in.  Is  it 
not,  then,  perfectly  legitimate  to  consider  death 
and  hades  ai  standing  for  the  dead  who  were  in 
them,  or,  rather,  the  dead  in  whom  they  were  ?"2 
We  cannot  withhold  our  assent  to  this  interpre- 
tation as  the  only  natural  and  consistent  one. 
Passing  now  to  the  next  chapter  of  the  Apoc- 

1  Cf.  u.  11 ;  and  xx.  6.  2  Chr.  Kev.  vol.  XX.  p.  397. 


THE   FINAL    STATE.  81 

alypse,  we  read :  "  But  the  fearful  and  unbelieving, 
and  abominable,  and  murderers,  and  ichoremongersy 
and  sorcerers,  and  idolaters,  and  all  liars,  shall  have 
their  part  in  the  lake  which  hurneth  with  fire  and 
brimstone,  which  is  the  second  death  ]^  and  further 
on  in  the  next  chapter,  "Blessed  are  they  that  do 
his  commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to 
the  tree  of  life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the 
gates  into  the  city.    For  without  are  dogs,  and  sor- 
cerers,  and  ivhorcmongers,  and  murderers,  and  idola- 
ters, and  whosoever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie^'^     Let 
it  be  observed  in  passing,  that  the  same  classes 
of  men,  with  hardly  an  exception,  are  said,  in 
the  one  case,  to  "  have  part  in  the  lake  of  fire," 
and,  in  the  other,  to  be  "  without  the  city."     To 
these  passages  should  be  added,  as  referring  in 
our  judgment  to  the  future  doom  of  unbeliev- 
ers, two  verses  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  this 
book,  namely,  "  If  any  man  worship   the  beast 
and  his  image,  and  receive  his  mark  in  his  fore- 
head or  in  his  hand,  the  same  shall  drink  of  the 
wine  of  the  wrath  of  God,  which  is  poured  out 
without  mixture  into  the  cup  of  his  indignation : 
and  he  shall  be  tormented  —  Saaavia^riasiai  — 
with  fire  and  brimstone,  in  the  presence  of  the 
holy  angels  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb ; 

1  Rev.  xxi.  8.  2  Rev.  xxii.  15. 


82  STATE    OF    THE   IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

and  the  smoke  of  their  torment  ascendeth  up 
forever  and  ever ;  and  they  have  no  rest  day  nor 
night,"  etc.^  Well  has  Bengel  said  of  this  lan- 
pfiiaQre,  '•'  Una  omnhim  liorrcndissima  in  tola  Scrip- 
tura  est  hceccc  comminatlo.  Pcllit  timorem  ah  in- 
terfcctorihus  corporis  timor  ah  Eo,  qui  potest  ct  ani- 
mam  ct  corpus  perimere.'"^ 

On  these  portions  of  the  sacred  record  we 
submit  the  following  remarks  :  First,  the  second 
death,  which  awaits  all  whose  names  are  not 
written  in  the  book  of  life,  is  denominated  the 
lake  of  fire.  This  death  seems  also  to  be  re- 
ferred to  as  consisting,  in  part,  of  exclusion  from 
the  holy  city  and  association  with  the  vile  and 
abandoned.  Briefly,  it  involves  extreme  suffer- 
ing and  infinite  loss.  Secondly,  the  lake  of  fire, 
called  also  the  second  death,  is  a  designation  of 
the  final  state  or  abode  of  Satan  and  his  angels. 
If,  then,  the  testimony  of  this  apocalyptic  seer  is 
worthy  of  confidence,  wicked  men  are  to  be  as- 
sociated in  their  final  state  with  the  great  adver- 
sary—  a  fact  of  dreadful  omen  in  itself.  Tliird- 
ly,  the  sufi'erings  of  Satan  are  to  be  without  end. 
Togctlier  with  the  beast  and  the  false  prophet, 

1  Rev.  xiv.  10, 11. 

2  Sec  also  the  commentaries  of  Ilcngstenberg,  Ebrard,  and  Stuart, 
on  this  passage. 


THE    FINAL    STATE.  83 

he  is  to  be  "  tormented  clay  and  night  forever 
and  ever."  The  Greek  words  in  this  clause  are 
perfectly  unequivocal.  The  idea  of  eternity  is 
expressed  with  all  the  plainness  with  which  the 
most  perfect  language  ever  spoken  could  give  it ; 
and  we  are  unacquainted  with  any  form  of  speech 
that  would  more  surely  convey  to  a  mind  famil- 
iar with  the  Greek  tongue  the  idea  of  conscious 
suffering  than  the  one  here  chosen.  To  attempt 
any  modification  of  the  prima  facie  import  of 
such  language  seems  to  us  a  perilous  tampering 
with  the  word  of  God.  We  rejoice,  therefore,  to 
find  that  Dobney,  one  of  the  ablest  as  well  as 
fairest  defenders  of  annihilation,  hesitates  to  de- 
ny the  eternal  misery  of  Satan.^  Fourthly,  the 
misery  of  lost  men  must  therefore  be  pronounced 
in  like  manner  endless.  For  their  doom  is  de- 
scribed by  the  same  figurative  language  as  that 
of  Satan.  Many  of  them,  indeed,  are  designated 
by  the  terms  "  beast  "  and  "  false  prophet,"  who 
are  to  be  tormented,  it  is  explicitly  said,  for- 
ever and  ever.  And  from  the  passage  in  chap- 
ter fourteenth  we  learn  the  doom  of  all  who  wor- 
ship the  beast  and  his  image ;  "  the  smoke  of  his 
torment  ascendeth  up  forever  and  ever ;  and  they 
have  no  rest  day  nor  night,"  etc. 

1  Scripture  Doctrine  of  Future  Punishment,  p.  231  sq. 


84  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

"We  can  but  think  tlie  expressions  cited  above 
shut  us  up  to  the  doctrinCj  that  death,  the  penal- 
ty of  sin,  does  not  consist  in  the  extinction  of 
conscious  beino:,  but  in  the  extinction  of  conscious 
well-being.  Dissolution  belongs  to  the  corrupti- 
ble body,  "  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle," 
but  not  to  the  spirit  or  to  its  resurrection  body. 

Let  us  hear  now  the  words  of  Christ  while 
yet  on  earth.  In  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of 
Matthew  he  portrays  tlic  general  judgment.  "We 
quote  two  verses  from  tliis  sublime  description  : 
"  Then  shall  he  say  also  unto  them  on  the  left 
hand.  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed^  into  everlasting 
Jire  J  prepared  for  the  devil  aJidhis  angels^  "And 
these  shall  go  away  into  eternal  inmishment,  but 
the  righteous  into  life  eternal ^^  How  perfectly 
does  this  language  coincide  with  that  in  the  Apoc- 
alypse !  The  abode  of  lost  men  is  also  Satan's 
home,  and  is  called  everlasting  fire  and  punish- 
ment. To  resolve  all  this  into  a  flame-picture 
addressed  to  the  imagination,  is  to  give  up  the 
science  of  exegesis,  and  make  the  word  of  God 
teach  whatever  the  student  chooses  to  have  it. 
Says  De  Wette,  the  rationalist'.  "Evil  and  its 
punishment  have  in  the  Father,  the  absolute  God, 
and  in  his  eternal  pnr-pose,  no  ground,  but  are  a 

1  Matt.  XXV.  41,  46. 


THE    FINAL    STATE.  85 

human  work,  although  guided  and  controlled  of 

God The  punishment  of  hell,  which 

is  conditioned  by  sin,  cannot  be  eternal.  See, 
however,  the  opposite  view,  as  maintained  by 
the  Rabbins,  in  Wetstein.  The  eternity  of  this 
punishment  lies,  indeed,  in  the  verbal  sense — 
Wortsinne)  —  but  yet  it  is  to  be  remarked  that 
the  term  Jire  is  to  be  taken  figuratively,  and 
the  word  aiibviov  not  with  metaphysical  strictness ; 
that  the  idea  of  the  eternal  is  irreconcilable  with 
that  of  evil  and  its  punishment,  and  that  the 
object  of  this  warning  representation  is  not  to 
give  information  respecting  the  eternal  nature  of 
things,  but  to  depict  visibly  the  idea  of  the  judg- 
ment, that  is,  the  removal  of  the  conflict  between 
good  and  evil  in  the  kingdoui  of  God,  by  setting 
aside  evil." 

This  evidently  is  not  interpretation,  but  spec- 
ulation; its  basis  is  philosophy,  and  not  the 
word  of  God.  Meyer's  note,  on  the  other  hand, 
seems  to  us  full  of  truth :  "  The  absolute  idea 
of  eternity,  in  respect  to  the  punishment  of  hell, 
is  not  to  be  set  aside  by  an  appeal  to  the  popu- 
lar use  of  aid)viov,  nor  by  an  appeal  to  the  figura- 
tive term  Jire  and  to  the  inconsistency  between 
the  idea  of  the  eternal  and  that  of  evil  and 
its  punishment,  together  with  the  teaming  object 
8 


86  STATE    OF    THE    IMPEXITEXT    DEAD. 

of  the  description ;  but  it  stands  fast  exegetically 
by  reason  of  the  contrasted  'coji^p  u'uhvioy  which  sig- 
nifies the  endless  Messianic  life." 

With  the  passages  already  adduced  may  be 
compared  the  following :  "  If  thine  eye  offend 
thee,  pluck  it  out ;  it  is  better  for  thee  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God  with  one  eye,  than  hav- 
ing two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  hell,  where  their 
worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched."  ^ 
"  I  say  unto  you,  that  many  shall  come  from  the 
cast  and  the  west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abra- 
ham, and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  but  the  children  of  the  kingdom  shall 
be  cast  out  into  outer  darkness :  there  shall  be 
wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth." ^  "The  Son  of 
Man  shall  send  forth  his  angels,  and  they  shall 
gather  out  of  his  kingdom  all  things  that  offend, 
and  them  which  do  iniquity ;  and  shall  cast  them 
into  a  furnace  of  fire :  there  shall  be  wailing  and 
gnashing  of  teeth."  ^  ^  So  shall  it  be  at  the  end 
of  the  world :  the  angels  shall  come  forth  and 
shall  sever  the  wicked  from  among  the  just,  and 
shall  cast  them  into  the  furnace  of  fire :  there 
shall  be  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth."  ^  ^-  Cast 
ye  the  unprofitable  servant  into  outer  darkness : 

1  Mark  ix.  4T,  48.  s  :\ratt.  xiii.  41,  42. 

2  Matt.  viii.  11 12.  4  Matt.  xiii.  49,  50. 


THE    FIXAL    STATE.  87 

there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth."  i 
"But  he  shall  say,  I  tell  you  I  know  you  not 
whence  ye  are ;  depart  from  me  all  ye  workers 
of  iniquity.  There  shall  be  weeping  and  gnash- 
ing of  teeth  when  ye  shall  see  Abraham,  and 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  all  the  prophets,  in  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  you  yourselves  cast  out."  ^ 

It  will  be  observed  by  the  careful  reader  that 
the  final  abode  of  the  ungodly  is  variously  rep- 
resented by  Christ.  He  speaks  of  their  being 
cast  into  a  "  furnace  of  fire,"  or  "  unquenchable 
fire,"  into  "  outer  darkness,"  or  simply  "  out  of 
the" kingdom  of  God."  But  the  effect  is  always 
the  same ;  nowhere  destruction  of  consciousness, 
everywhere  misery,  "  weeping  and  gnashing  of 
teeth."  While  we  have  no  more  right  to  pre- 
sume that  unbelievers  will  be  immersed  in  the 
element  of  fire  hereafter  than  we  have  to  con- 
clude that  literal  darkness,  or  an  actual  worm 
that  never  dies,  will  be  the  source  of  their  an- 
guish, we  are  authorized,  and  indeed  required, 
to  believe  that  their  condition  will  be  one  of  in- 
tense woe. 

Yet  this  doctrine  has  been  of  late  assailed, 
and  the  opinion  has  been  advanced,  that  fire  is 
not  an  emblem  of  torment,  but  of  destruction, 

1  Matt.  XXV.  30.  2  Luke  xiii.  27,  28. 


bo  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITEXT   DEAD. 

and,  hence,  that  all  the  passages  cited  above 
point  us  rather  to  the  extinction  of  personal 
existence  than  to  a  state  of  penal  suffering. 
Several  instances  may,  no  doubt,  be  produced 
from  the  word  of  God  which  seem  at  first  sight 
to  favor  this  opinion.  But  if  we  narrowly  ex- 
amine those  expressions  which  set  forth  the  fu- 
ture condition  of  unbelievers,  it  will  be  found, 
we  suppose,  wholly  untenable.  For  (1)  the 
wicked  are  said  to  be  in  torment.  This  fact  is 
almost  always  indicated,  as  if  it  were  the  char- 
acteristic feature  of  their  condition.  Now  if 
fire  were  in  these  passages  an  emblem  of  de- 
struction, the  accompanying  terms  would  be  al- 
most certain  to  adjust  themselves  to  this  leading 
idea,  and  thus  place  it  in  the  foreground.  If 
virtual  annihilation  is  to  be  the  jmnislwient  of 
sin  hereafter,  and  if  this  was  meant  to  be  sym- 
bolized by  immersion  in  fire,  it  is  strange  that 
this  fact  does  not  appear,  as  the  fact  of  suffering 
now  does,  at  every  turn  in  the  language  of  Christ ; 
it  is  strange  that  the  rich  man  in  hades  is  made 
to  shrink  from  pain  only,  and  not  rather,  above 
all,  from  destruction  of  consciousness,  the  real 
penalty  of  sin,  the  culminating  point  of  his  doom. 
But  if  the  termination  of  personal  being  is  not 
in  reality  the  imnishmcnt  of  sin,  but  rather  the 


THE   FINAL   STATE.  89 

end  of  punishment,  the  coveted  release  from  it, 
then  surely  this  virtual  annihilation  cannot  be 
"  death,"  "  the  wages  of  sin/'  the  penalty  annexed 
to  it  from  the  beginning.  Alas  !  when  we  read 
that  Dives  after  death  lifted  up  his  eyes,  being  in 
torments,  and  said,  also,  I  am  tormented  in  this 
flame,  that  Satan  and  his  angels  are  to  be  tor- 
mented in  the  lake  of  fire,  which  is  the  second 
death,  and  that  unbelievers  are  sentenced  with 
appalling  precision  of  language  to  the  same 
state,  it  is  but  too  certain  that  fire  is  here  em- 
ployed to  symbolize  a  source  of  suffering,  instead 
of  non-existence.  And  (2)  the  impenitent  dead 
are  said  to  be  in  protracted,  endless  woe.  It 
would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  express 
the  idea  of  endless  misery  more  unequivocally 
than  it  is  given  in  several  passages  to  which  we 
have  referred.  To  transcribe  again  language  so 
inexpressibly  solemn  and  fearful  seems  to  be 
unnecessary.  Let  the  reader  who  feels  any 
doubt  at  this  point  turn  back  and  examine  once 
more  the  testimony  for  himself.  But  how  long 
does  fire,  as  a  destroying  agent,  spare  its  vic- 
tim ?  How  many  hours,  or  even  minutes,  would 
a  human  being  survive  in  a  flame  so  intense  as 
to  be  called,  for  that  reason,  unquenchable  ?  In 
a  previous  section  we  have  shown  that  human 
8^ 


90  STATE    OP    THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

souls  are  conscious  during  the  interim  between 
bodily  death  and  resuiTcction.  But  for  many  of 
our  race,  how  long  must  this  period  be  !  Who 
can  measure  the  interval  which  connects  the  frat- 
ricide of  Cain  with  the  sound  of  the  last  trum- 
pet !  Yet,  according  to  our  Saviour's  account  of 
"the  rich  man,"  the  lost  in  hades  survive  what  is 
signified  by  the  action  of  fire,  until  the  last  judg- 
ment ;  and  if  they  endure  it  for  so  long  a  time, 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  it  will  ever  put  an 
end  to  their  personal  existence.  Think  of  the 
wicked  as  being  exposed  after  death  to  some 
power  which  destroys  them,  as  fire  burns  up  the 
chafi",  and  what  becomes  of  Christ's  language, 
"  For  all  are  alive  to  him,"  ^  and  again,  through 
the  Revclator,  "  They  shall  be  tormented  day 
and  night  forever  and  ever."^  Its  appropriate- 
ness and  significance  disappear  at  once,  and  we 
are  compelled  to  wonder  at  his  use  of  language. 
And  (3)  the  impenitent  dead  are  described 
as  being  in  "  outer  darkness,"  "without  the  city," 
and  "  without  the  kingdom  of  God."  But  dark- 
ness, however  thick  and  terrible,  is  by  no  means, 
according  to  the  popular  belief  and  nsns  loqucndi, 
a  destructive  energy.  It  is  rather  suggestive  of 
gloom,  terror,  helplessness  and  desertion,  than 

1  Luke  XX.  38.  2  Rev.  xx.  10. 


THE   FINAL   STATE.  91 

of  extinction  of  being.  Much  more  is  this  true 
of  the  other  expressions.  To  be  excluded  from 
the  holy  city  or  the  kingdom  of  God  is  simply 
equivalent  to  being  fixed  irrevocably  in  a  state 
of  spiritual  death,  the  state  in  which  unbelievers 
now  exist.  For  these  reasons,  in  brief,  we  must 
reject  the  opinion  that  fire  is  spoken  of  in  con- 
nection with  the  impenitent  dead  as  a  symbol  of 
destruction,  and  must  adhere  to  the  view  obvi- 
ously required  in  almost  every  case  by  the  adjimcts 
and  context,  that  it  is  a  symbol  of  torment. 

Our  conclusion,  then,  is  this :  That  the  con- 
scious existence  of  unbelievers  will  have  no  end.^ 
Those  who  reject  Christ  are  destined  to  survive 
the  rolling  together  of  the  heavens  as  a  scroll, 
and  the  melting  of  the  elements  with  fervent 
heat,  —  are  destined  to  survive  the  searchings 
and  terrors  of  the  last  day,  when  they  will  be 
ready  to  say  to  the  mountains,  Fall  on  us,  and 
hide  us  from  the  face  of  him  that  sitteth  upon 
the  throne,  and  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb ;  for 

1  It  has  not  been  deemed  necessary  to  examine  afresh,  as  if  the 
matter  were  unsettled,  the  import  of  aluivtos  and  the  phrases  which 
signify  eternal.  See,  however,  Stuart's  "Essays  on  Future  Punish- 
ment," p.  5,  sq. ;  Meth.  Rev.  vol.  XXXIV.  p.  257,  sq. ;  "Immortal- 
ity: The  Argument  from  Scripture,"  by  Rev.  T.  M.  Post,  D.D. ; 
New  Englander,  vol.  XIV.  p.  161,  sq. — a  manlj^  and  powerful  dis- 
cussion ^  ElUcott  on  2  Thess.  i.  9;  Ebrard  on  Rev.  xx.  10;  and  the 
commentators  generally  on  the  passages  noticed  in  this  essay. 


92  STATE   OP   THE   IMPENITENT  DEAD. 

the  great  day  of  his  wrath  is  come,  and  who 
shall  be  able  to  stand  ?  —  are  destined  to  survive 
their  flight  into  the  outer  darkness,  where  there 
shall  be  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  their 
descent  into  the  bottomless  pit,  where  they  will 
have  no  rest  day  nor  night ;  and  are  destined,  in 
this  abode  of  outer  darkness,  to  suffer,  with  all 
the  foes  of  God,  "  eternal  punishment."  This, 
according  to  the  Scriptures,  to  which  we  must 
add  nothing,  from  which  we  must  subtract  noth- 
ing, will  be  their  dreadful  but  righteous  doom. 
This  is  the  second  death.  0  that  all  who  read 
these  pages  may  be  delivered  from  it  by  accept- 
ing the  gift  of  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord  !  And  may  God  in  his  tender  mercy  give 
us  grace  to  believe  on  his  Son  before  the  day  of 
our  trial  is  past,  and  our  doom  assigned  us  with 
hypocrites  and  unbelievers  I 


SECTION    Y. 

BIBLICAL  OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED. 

(1)  "DEATH,"  THE  EXTINCTION  OF  CONSCIOUS  BEING.  —  THEORY  OP 
HAM. — THEORY  OF  HUDSON.  —  (2)  "  DESTRUCTION,"  THE  EXTINCTION 
OF  CONSCIOUS  BEING. — SUPPORTS  OF  THIS  VIEW.  —  OBJECTIONS  TO  IT. 

Against  the  doctrine  now  presented,  several 
objections  have  been  raised,  some  of  which  de- 
serve our  careful  attention.  It  is  our  purpose 
to  examine  in  this  section  the  most  considerable 
of  those  which  are  drawn  professedly  from  the 
word  of  God.     And,  — 

I.  The  penalty  of  sin,  the  final  doom  of  unbe- 
lievers,  is  frequently  called  death  ;  hut  death  is  an 
event  which  puts  an  end  to  conscious  existence. 
The  whole  matter  turns  of  course  upon  the  pro- 
per definition  of  the  term  "  deaths  In  support 
of  the  definition  here  given,  we  are  reminded 
that  Adam  must  have  looked  upon  death  as  the 
extinction  of  conscious  being,  and  hence  that  he 
was  not  fairly  treated,  if  it  signified  anything 
worse  than  this  in  the  threatening,  "  Thou  shalt 


94  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

surely  die."  Says  Mr.  Hudson,  "  The  advance 
of  geological  science  has  proved  that  animals 
had  lived  and  died  for  thousands  of  years  before 
the  creation  of  man.  Did  Adam  not  know  of 
their  mortality,  when  he  was  told  that  he  might 
die  ?  And  if  he  did,  must  he  not  understand  by 
death  just  such  an  expiring  and  decay  as  he  saw 
among  the  brutes  around  him  ?  .  .  .  Was  he 
fairhj  treated,  if  that  was  only  the  prelude  of 
death,  and  if,  without  a  word  of  express  warn- 
ing, he  was  still  liable  to  endless  woe  ?"i  Dob- 
ney  expresses  the  same  argument.  "  I  submit," 
he  says,  "that  Adam  could  never  have  under- 
stood the  sentence  to  include  what  the  popular 
belief  finds  in  it,  unless  the  words  had  been  so  ex- 
plained  to  him  ;  of  which,  as  there  is  no  account, 
so  it  may  not  be  taken  for  granted  in  order  to 
make  out  a  theory.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing  indeed 
on  which  it  more  behoves,  or  in  fact  so  much 
behoves,  that  there  should  be  perfect  and  trans- 
parent cxplicitness,  as  in  a  sentence  denouncing 
evil  in  case  of  transgression.  One  who  is  in 
any  danger  of  violating  law  ought  to  be  able  by 
due  painstaking  to  understand  the  threatened 
consequences  of  voluntary  ill-doing.  It  would 
not  he  righteous  in  a  liuman  lawgiver  to  threaten 
ten  stripes  and  inflict  a  thousand,  or  to  threaten 

1  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life,  p.  170. 


BIBLICAL    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.  95 

a  day's  imprisonment  and  then  commit  to  the 
galleys  for  life,  or  hand  over  to  the  executioner. 
This,  amongst  men,  would  be  properly  denounced 
as  most  flagrant  tyranny.  Let  the  man  whom  it 
is  wished  to  deter  from  a  criminal  act  know  ex- 
plicitly the  full  legal  consequences  of  crime."  ^ 

On  the  correctness  of  the  position  here  taken, 
that  the  righteousness  of  a  punishment  depends 
upon  the  criminal's  knowledge  of  it  beforehand, 
or  in  other  words,  that  it  is  the  knowledge  of 
consequences,  and  not  the  knowledge  of  right  and 
icrojig  in  conduct  itself,  which  makes  man  re- 
sponsible to  God  and  deserving  of  reward  or 
punishment,  we  shall  have  something  to  say  in 
the  sequel.  For  the  present  we  simply  remark, 
that  neither  science  nor  revelation  assures  us 
that  Adam  had  observed  the  phenomena  of 
death  in  the  brute  creation  before  the  fall,  and 
had  thus  been  taught  to  regard  this  event  as  an 
extinction  of  being.  There  is  perhaps  no  more 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  had  anything  like  a 
correct  idea  of  physical  death  without  divine 
instruction,  than  that  he  had  a  somewhat  dis- 
tinct idea  of  shame,  remorse,  and  spiritual  ruin 
by  means  of  direct  instruction  from  God.  The 
narrative  in  Genesis  suggests  quite  as  readily 
the  presence  of  Jehovah  as  the  presence  of  death 

1  Scripture  Doctrijie  of  Future  Punishment,  p.  128. 


96  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

in  the  garden,  knowledge  derived  from  commun- 
ion with  God  as  knowledge  derived  from  the 
study  of  expiring  animals. 

In  support  of  this  view,  it  is  also  said  that 
the  soul  of  man  is  itself  material,  or  at  least  de- 
pendent for  its  conscious  existence  upon  material 
organization.  And  to  prove  this  we  are  again 
reminded  of  Jehovah's  language  to  Adam :  "  In 
the  day  thou  catest  thereof,  thou  —  not  thy  body 
—  shalt  surely  die,"  and  further  along  in  the 
narrative,  ^^  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt 
thou  return."  But  here  the  original  text  does 
not  permit  us  to  emphasize  the  pronoun  and 
paraphrase  thus  —  tJiou  as  a  ijerson,  a  self-con- 
scious being  —  tJiou  as  to  the  very  centre  and 
principle  of  thy  rational  nature  —  art  from  the 
dust,  and  shalt  return  to  the  same.  No  such 
thought  can  be  fairly  evoked  from  the  passage. 
We  are  told,  liowever,  that  other  portions  of  the 
sacred  record  authorize  us  to  find  this  meaning 
in  the  words  of  Jehovah  to  Adam.  Let  us  look 
at  one  or  two  of  these  passages  : — 

And  first  we  may  look  at  the  words  of  Balaam  : 
"  Let  my  soul  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and 
let  my  last  end  be  like  his,"  ^  and  then  at  those 
of  Samson  :   "  Let  my  soul  die  with  the  Philis- 

INum.  xxiil.  10. 


BIBLICAL   OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.  97 

tines."  1  Death,  we  are  assured,  is  here  predicat- 
ed of  the  soul,  and  hence  the  soul  is  regarded  as 
dying  with  the  body.  We  have  at  least  the 
opinion  of  Balaam  and  Samson  that  it  comes 
to  an  end  with  its  earthly  house.  But  to  this 
we  may  reply,  that  the  expression,  "  my  soul," 
appears  in  both  these  cases  to  take  the  place  of 
a  pronoun,  and  differs  from  the  latter,  if  at  all, 
only  by  way  of  emphasis.  Hence  the  common 
version  is  correct  in  sense,  and  nothing  is  here 
affirmed  of  the  death  of  the  soul  per  se.  But 
should  this  use  of  the  expression,  "  my  soul,"  be 
challenged,  the  frequent  choice  of  the  word,  trans- 
lated by  us  "soul  "  to  signify  merely  the  animal 
life,  the  anima,  xjiv/r^j  cannot  be  called  in  question 
for  a  moment,  and  this  signification,  be  it  ob- 
served, suits  the  design  of  each  passage,  and  is 
selected  for  each  by  Gesenius.^  Accordingly  we 
say  again  that  neither  of  these  texts  should  be 
adduced  to  prove  the  death  of  the  soul  per  se. 
The  former  suo^oiests  rather  the  idea  of  a  life  be- 
yond  the  grave.  For  why,  otherwise,  should  Ba- 
laam wish  to  die  the  death  of  the  righteous  ? 
Was  it  because  the  wicked  suffer  more  pain 
in  articulo  mortis  than  the  righteous  ?     Such  an 

1  Jud,  xvi.  30. 

2  Cf.  Ex.  xxii.  23 ;  1  Kings  xix.  3;  with  Odys.  xix.  423. 

9 


98  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

hypothesis  does  not  accord  very  well  with  the 
rapt  condition  of  the  seer,  if,  indeed,  it  be  not 
too  trivial  a  thought  for  any  man  who  is  antici- 
pating the  close  of  life.  Or  was  it  because  he 
knew  of  the  resurrection,  the  final  judgment, 
and  the  second  death,  from  the  last  of  which  he 
would  fain  be  delivered  to  enjoy  eternal  life  ? 
This  view  is  inconsistent  with  tlie  acknowledged 
fact,  tliat  very  few  references  are  made  in  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  doctrine  of  a  resurrection, 
while  references  to  a  future  life  are  not  infre- 
quent. To  us  it  is  manifest  that  Balaam  was 
looking  forward  to  a  conscious  existence  beyond 
the  grave,  depending  for  its  blessedness  or  mis- 
ery upon  his  character  in  this  life. 

It  is  needless  to  examine  other  passages  of 
this  class;  for  no  one  of  them  teaches  that 
natural  death  involves  the  extinction  of  man's 
rational  spirit  or  conscious  being ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  words  of  Christ,  '-  Fear  not  them 
that  kill  the  body,"  etc.,  prove  beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt  that  it  involves  no  such  extinction. 

Again  we  are  told  by  Mr.  Hudson,  that  all 
the  passages  which  we  have  referred  to  spiritual 
death,  together  with  the  account  in  Genesis,  lead 
naturally  to  a  very  difTcrent  view,  namely,  that 
men  are  pronounced  dead  in  these   instances, 


BIBLICAL    OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED.  99 

prolepticalhj,  or  by  way  of  anticipation,  because 
they  are  as  good  as  dead,  are  virtually  dead, 
that  is,  are  sentenced  to  death,  and  perhaps  are 
even  now  in  the  process  of  dying.  As  illustra- 
tions of  this  figure  of  speech  he  cites  a  passage 
in  Genesis :  "  But  God  came  to  Abimelech  in  a 
dream  by  night,  and  said  to  him,  Behold  thou 
art  a  dead  man,  for  the  woman  which  thou  hast 
taken ;  "  ^  another  in  Exodus  :  "  And  the  Egyp- 
tians were  urgent  upon  the  people  that  they 
might  send  them  out  of  the  land  in  haste :  for 
they  said.  We  be  all  dead ;  "^  and  another  in  Num- 
bers :  "  And  the  children  of  Israel  spake  unto 
Moses,  saying.  Behold  we  die,  we  perish^  ive  all 
'perishy  ^ 

But  these  texts  are  by  no  means  similar  to 
the  expression  in  Genesis  which  they  are  said 
to  elucidate.  For  ( 1 )  the  prolepsis  is  here  quite 
self-evident.  In  each  case  the  language  plainly 
refers  to  natural  death,  and  cannot  be  supposed 
to  signify  anything  else.  Yet  those  who  are 
alive  in  the  flesh  are  pronounced  to  be  now 
dead  or  dying.  Here  the  verb  or  participle  is 
in  the  present  tense,  and  a  declaration  is  made 
which  cannot  even  be  imagined  true,  except  by 
way  of  anticipation.     That  which  is  conceived 

1  Gen.  XX.  33.  2  Ex.  xii.  33.  s  Xiim.  xvii.  27. 


100  STATE  OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

of  as  certain,  just  at  hand,  and  as  good  as  done, 
is  spoken  of  as  now  actually  accomplished. 
How  different  is  this  from  the  deliberate  pre- 
diction of  an  event  which  is  to  occur  in  the 
future  !  How  different  from  the  same  language 
when  the  context  leads  us  to  think  of  the  moral 
rather  than  the  physical  nature  of  man !  And 
(2)  the  passages  adduced  by  Mr.  Hudson  are 
preceded  b}^  narratives  which  prepare  the  reader 
for  emphatic  and  impassioned  language.  From 
the  circumstances  related,  he  is  led  to  expect  the 
utterance  of  deep  emotion,  of  severe  indignation 
and  frantic  alarm,  in  words  fitted  to  express  not 
so  much  a  historical  fact  as  a  feeling  of  the 
heart.  But  nothing  of  this  can  be  imagined  in 
Jehovah,  when  he  forewarned  Adam,  yet  sin- 
less, of  the  sure  and  penal  reward  of  transgres- 
sion, nor  in  Paul  when  he  reminded  the  Colos- 
sians  that  previous  to  conversion  they  "were 
dead  in  their  sins  and  in  the  uncircumcision  of 
their  flesh."  They  speak  with  the  deliberation 
and  precision  of  a  lawgiver  and  a  historian,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  assign  a  prolcptical  import 
to  the  language.  But  Mr.  Hudson  appeals  with 
still  greater  confidence  to  the  words  of  Pharaoh, 
"  Get  thee  from  me ;  take  heed  to  thyself;  see 
my  face  no  more ;  for  in  that  day  thou  seest  my 


BIBLICAL   OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED.         101 

face,  thou  shall  die.''^  And  to  the  words  of 
Solomon,  "Build  thee  an  house  in  Jerusalem 
and  dwell  there,  and  go  not  forth  thence  any- 
whither ;  for  it  shall  be  that  on  the  day  thou  goesC 
out,  and  passeth  over  the  brook  Kedron,  thou 
shalt  know  for  certain  that  thou  shalt  surely 
die^  2  Yet  these  passages,  in  our  opinion, 
make  against  the  view  advocated  by  Mr.  Hud- 
son. For  it  cannot  well  be  doubted  that  both 
Pharaoh  and  Solomon  meant  to  he  understood  as 
threatening  the  death  of  Moses  and  of  Shimei, 
respectively,  on  the  very  days  indicated.  The 
warning  depended,  no  doubt,  in  a  great  measure, 
upon  this  circumstance  for  its  force.  There 
shall  be  no  delay,  no  reprieve,  but  immediate 
death  —  this  was  the  meaning  of  both  these 
princes.  Had  Solomon  passed  a  formal  sentence 
of  death  upon  Shimei,  when  the  latter  had  re- 
turned from  Gath,  but  deferred  the  execution 
of  it  ten,  twenty,  or  forty  years,  no  man  would 
hesitate  to  ascribe  this  delay  of  execution  to 
some  change  in  the  views  or  the  feelings  of  the 
king  —  no  man  would  pretend  that  he  had  done 
as  he  meant  to  do  when  he  uttered  the  warning, 
or  as  he  wished  Shimei  to  understand  him  as 
resolved  and  pledged  to  do. 

1  Exod.  X.  28.  2  1  Kings  ii.  36,  37. 

9  ^ 


102  STATE   OP    THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

We  conclude,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Hudson  has 
not  justified  his  interpretation  of  the  words  in 
Genesis,  "  In  the  day  of  thy  eating  of  it  thou 
shalt  surely  die,"  by  a  single  passage  from  the 
word  of  God,  which  does  not  refer  to  the  ques- 
tion in  debate,  and  hence  we  must  either  pro- 
nounce it  untenable  in  philology,  or  assume 
that  on  this  one  theme,  the  penalty  of  sin,  in- 
spired writers  use  a  figure  of  speech  with  great 
frequency  in  a  quite  extraordinary,  and,  indeed, 
unprecedented  manner. 

If,  now,  we  reflect  that  the  spirit  of  man  was 
made  originally  incorruptible  and  fitted  to  exist 
forever  ;  that  the  fall  did  not  result  in  a  speedy 
termination  of  his  conscious  being,  but  rather 
in  a  moral  separation  from  God,  often  called 
death,  and  that  the  terms  "death"  and  "life"  are 
sometimes  used  by  the  sacred  writers  to  denote 
the  opposite  spiritual  conditions  of  those  equally 
alive  in  the  flesh,  —  all  presumption  in  favor  of 
the  annihilation  of  unbelievers,  arising  from  the 
use  of  the  word  "  death  "  to  describe  their  final 
punishment,  vanishes  away.  And  if,  moreover, 
this  term,  when  applied  in  the  Scriptures  to  the 
final  state  of  unbelievers,  is  surrounded  by  ad- 
juncts which  naturally  imply  conscious  existence, 
these  adjuncts  must  be  taken  as  full  proof  of 


BIBLICAL    OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED  103 

such  existence ;  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  word 
'^  death  "  to  impair  their  force.  This  has  been 
already  shown  in  a  previous  section.  Yet  it 
may  be  well  to  add,  that  if  it  is  proper  to  say 
of  a  man  who  has  lost  his  fellowship  with  sin 
and  with  a  sinful  world,  that  he  is  dead  to  sin,  ^ 
or  dead  to  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  ^  it  is 
equally  proper  and  even  more  natural  to  describe 
one  as  dead  unto  God  when  he  has  lost  all  fel- 
lowship with  him,  and  the  faculties  of  his  soul 
reason,  conscience,  affection  have  ceased  to 
perform  their  noblest  function,  to  unite  him  con- 
sciously with  the  Father  of  Spirits  and  make  his 
existence  truly  normal  and  blessed.  When  we 
shall  have  attained  such  conceptions  of  life  and 
death  as  are  taught  by  a  sound  philosophy  and 
by  the  word  of  God,  these  terms  will  no  longer 
be  confounded  with  "  personal  existence,"  or 
"  non-existence.*'  ^ 

But  we  pass  on  to  another  objection,  namely, — 

II.  The  final  doom  of  unbelievers  is   often 

called  ^^ destruction^''  or  " perditio7i,^^  in  the  New 

1  Rom.  vi.  2.  6, 11. 

2  Col.  ii.  20.  Sec  also  iii,  3,  where  the  word  "dead"  is  to  be  un- 
derstood in  the  same  sense.  Compare  the  learned  and  accurate 
commentary  of  EUicott  on  these  passages. 

3  See  the  Meth.  Rev.,  vol.  XXXIV.  p.  250  sq.,  for  some  discrim- 
inating remarks  on  this  point. 


104         STATE    OF    THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

Testament;  hut  the  xcord^  thus  rendered  in  our 
version  signifies  the  extinction  of  conscious  being, 
that  is,  when  applied  to  man  or  to  any  being 
possessed  of  consciousness.  If  the  meaning 
here  assigned  to  "destruction"  and  "perdition" 
be  correct,  this  objection  is  valid  and  decisive  j 
for  we  readily  admit  that  wicked  men  are  fre- 
quently threatened  with  destruction  both  in  this 
world  and  in  the  world  to  come.  But  we  do  not 
find  this  definition  sustained  by  the  law  and  the 
testimony.  It  will,  therefore,  be  suitable  for  us 
to  examine  briefly  a  few  passages  which  are  said 
to  justify  and  even  require  it ;  and  then  several 
others  may  be  noticed  which  seem  to  call  for  a 
different  explanation.  If  we  do  not  select  those 
passages  in  the  former  case  which  are  clearest 
for  the  objection,  our  failure  to  do  so  will  spring 
from  oversight  or  ignorance,  not  from  design. 

Christ  is  represented  by  Matthew  as  saying, 
"  Fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body,  but  are  not 
able  to  kill  the  soul ;  but  rather  fear  him  which 
is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell."  ^ 
It  has  already  been  observed  that  this  verse  dis- 
tinguishes between  body  and  soul,  affirming  that 
one  may  be  killed  without  destroying  the  other. 

1  'ArdAAufii  and  its  derivatives.  2 Matt.  x.  28. 


BIBLICAL    OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERD.  105 

And  if  we  look  at  the  parallel  record  made  by- 
Luke,  it  will  be  found  to  go  still  further,  and  im- 
ply that  bodily  death  does  not  injure  the  soul : 
^^Be  not  afraid  of  them  that  kill  the  body,  and 
after  that  have  no  more  that  they  can  do ;  but  I 
will  forewarn  you  whom  ye  shall  fear :  Fear 
him,  which,  after  he  hath  killed,  hath  power  to 
cast  into  hell ;  yea,  I  say  unto  you,  fear  him."  ^ 
Dr.  Whately  is  unable  to  perceive  any  connec- 
tion between  these  verses  and  the  subject  of  the 
soul's  consciousness  after  death.  ^  To  us  the  con- 
nection seems  to  be  most  obvious ;  for  if  men, 
by  killing  the  body,  extinguish  the  soul's  con- 
sciousness until  the  resurrection,  they  do,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  kill  the  soul  no  less  than 
the  body.  For  a  soul  minus  consciousness  is 
no  more  a  human  soul  than  a  corpse  without 
life  is  a  human  body.  Consciousness  organizes 
and  holds  together  the  faculties  of  the  soul,  as 
the  principle  of  natural  life  does  the  elements 
of  the  body  —  the  one  is  as  necessary  to  per- 
sonal being  as  the  other  is  to  animal  existence. 
Hence,  we  say,  if  men  put  an  end  to  conscious- 
ness, until  the  resurrection,  by  killing  the  body, 
they  do  ipso  facto  kill  the  soul  as  well.     Both, 

1  Luke  xii.  4,  5.  2  «  Future  Life,"  p.  64. 


106         STATE    OF    THE    IMPEXITEXT   DEAD. 

as  such,  arc  rendered  ])y  tins  act  virtually  non- 
existent, and,  indeed,  apart  from  the  interven- 
tion of  God,  forever  so.  Both  must  be  raised 
again  by  divine  power,  or  remain  forever  desti- 
tute of  their  characteristic  being.  We  are  well 
aware  that  various  analogies  have  been  urged 
agamst  this  view,  as,  for  example,  that  the  soul 
is  unconscious  in  deep  sleep,  or  after  a  stunning 
blow,  etc.  But  these  analogies  are  worthless  ; 
for  many  well-attested  facts  make  it  probable, 
if  not  certain,  that  the  soul  is  not,  in  such  in- 
stances, really  unconscious.  Even  Whately  af- 
firms that  "the  mind,  certainly  for  the  most  part, 
and  probably  alivays,  continues  active  during 
sleep,  though  iii  a  different  manner,  and  though 
the  confused  ideas  occurring  in 'sleep,  which  we 
call  dreams,  are  but  imperfectly  remembered." ^ 
If  the  mind  is  active  during  the  profoundest 
sleep,  when  the  brain,  utterly  exhausted,  refuses 
to  obey  the  will,  why  may  it  not  be  active  when 
the  brain  is  disturbed  by  a  blow,  and  its  power 
to  serve  the  mind  suspended  ?  True,  it  must  be 
active  "  in  a  different  manner ; "  and  hence, 
doubtless,  the  fact  that  its  action  is  not  recalled 
when  the  normal  connection  between  the  mind 

1"  Future  State,"  p.  82. 


JBLICAL    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.         107 

and  its  organ  is  restored.  But,  leaving  this 
point,  we  desire  to  know  precisely  how  the  final 
destruction  of  the  soul  by  God  is  supposed  to 
differ  from  its  exinanition  at  the  death  of  the 
body  ?  If  the  result  is  really  the  same  in  both 
cases,  then  it  must  be  granted  that  not  only  God, 
but  man  also,  is  able  to  kill  the  soul ;  though  it 
may  depend  upon  the  will  of  God  whether  the 
soul  remain  dead  forever,  or  rise  again.  But 
this,  manifestly,  is  not  the  import  of  the  text. 
The  text  asserts  that  man  is  unable  to  kill  the 
soul ;  and  this,  we  repeat,  is  equivalent  to  say- 
ing that  the  soul  continues  alive  when  the  body 
is  slain. 

But  to  the  main  question:  Does  the  word 
^TtoXiatti  (to  destroy)  here  signify  "to  put  an  end 
to?"  We  reply  in  the  negative,  (1)  because 
the  parallel  record  by  Luke  gives  us  instead  of 
this  expression  the  equivalent  words  "to.  cast 
into  hell;"  and  we  have  seen  , that  the  latter 
phrase  does  not  imply ;  extinction  of  being. 
(2)  Because  the  essential  distinction  between 
soul  and  body  here  intimated,  and  the  selection  of 
different  terms  to  express  the  danger  to  which  they 
are  respectively:  exposed,  suggests,  to  say  the 
least,  a  diversity  of  peril,  and  not  one  common 
danger.     SajsEengel:  dnoUaai,  (jperdere).     Nan 


108  STATE    OF    THE    IMPEXITEXT    DEAD. 

dicitur  occiderc.  Anima  est  inimortalis.  ^  And 
(3),  because  the  Greek  Avord  here  rendered  "to 
destroy  "  is  often  used,  as  Tve  shall  presently 
show,  m  a  different  sense,  precisely  adapted  to 
this  passage,  and  quite  in  harmony  with  other 
declarations  concerning  the  final  state  of  un- 
believers. 

We  pass  on  to  the  words  of  Christ,  "  He  that 
findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth 
his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it."^  This  verse 
teaches,  it  is  said,  that  the  man  who  preserves 
his  personal  existence  in  this  world  by  declining 
to  follow  Christ,  shall  forfeit  the  same  for  the 
world  to  come ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  whoever 
loses  his  life  here  for  Christ's  sake,  shall  have, 
by  means  of  the  resurrection,  eternal  conscious- 
ness hereafter.  Doubtless  the  language  of  Christ 
is  in  itself  alone  capable  of  this  interpretation ; 
but  it  is  also  equally  capable  of  another,  more 
in  harmony  with  the  greater  part  of  God's  word. 
For  nothing  is  more  natural  than  a  play  upon 
the  term  xpvx/i  (life),  using  it  now  in  a  lower 
and  then  in  a  higher  sense.  In  the  latter,  it  is 
equivalent  to  the  term  ;-w7|,  as  used,  by  the 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  to  designate  that 

1  See  Meyer,  De  Wette,  and  Alford.  2  Matt.  x.  39. 


BIBLICAL    OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED.         109 

spiritual  life  which  begins  in  time,  but  reaches  its 
bloom  and  perfection  in  eternity.  So  that  one 
who  declines  the  service  of  Christ  has  his  re- 
ward in  this  world — a  life  of  ease,  and  indulgence, 
and  temporal  safety;  but  he  forfeits  all  inter- 
est in  the  world  above,  where  the  true  life  of 
the  soul  culminates  in  eternal  joy,  where  fellow- 
ship with  God  is  perfect,  the  spirit  seeing  as  it 
is  seen,  and  knowing  as  it  is  known. 

Again :  the  passage,  "  Then,  also,  those  who 
fell  asleep  in  Christ  perished,"^  is  insisted  upon 
as  proving  beyond  a  peradventure  that  destruc- 
tion is  an  event  which  terminates  conscious  ex- 
istence. Says  Ham  :  "  The  apostle,  in  this  con- 
cise piece  of  reasoning,  distinctly  affirms  that  if 
there  be  no  destruction  of  the  dead,  then  there 
is  no  future  life.  He  shows,  also,  what  was  his 
doctrine  of  the  intermediate  state  of  believers — 
'  They  which  have  fallen  asleep  in  Christ,'  not 
they  which  are  in  a  state  oi  disembodied  con- 
sciousness and  activity  in  glory.  But  can  the 
orthodox  of  the  nineteenth  century  agree  with 
Paul  in  this  affirmation,  that  if  the  dead  rise  not. 
Christians  who  have  departed  this  life  are  iier- 
ished?  No,  they  say;  'if  the  dead  rise  not,' 
the  soul  lives  on  —  its  life  does  not  depend  upon 

1 1  Cor.  XV.  18. 

10 


110         STATE   OP   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

the  resumption  of  the  body.  .  .  .  Let  criti- 
cism and  exegesis  (on  the  part  of  the  orthodox) 
be  consistent,  and  we  have  the  following  as  the 
signification  of  the  passage  before  us  :  '  Then 
they  which  are  fallen  asleep  in  Christ  are  per- 
ishcd,^  they  have  gone  to  Gehenna,  to  endure 
the  endless  torments  of  the  unquenchable  fire. 
This  is  the  theological  sense  o^  perishing.  I  need 
not  characterize  such  an  interpretation  as  most 
awfully  and  insultingly  absurd.  AVhat !  the  holy 
and  self-denying  followers  of  Christ,  because  the 
dead  rise  not — a  hope  which  they  had  fondly  cher- 
ished—  to  be  consigned  to  endless  misery  !  Paul 
never  meant  this."^ 

To  this  it  may  be  replied  in  a  word :  Paul 
teaches  that  all  men  have  sinned,  even  "  the  holy 
and  self-denying  followers  of  Christ;  "  that  all, 
without  exception,  arc  guilty  and  condemned 
before  God ;  that  the  penalty  or  wages  of  sin  is 
death,  and  pre-eminently  the  second  death,  the 
lake  of  fire,  eternal  punishment ;  that  eternal  life 
or  blessedness  is  the  gift  of  God,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  and  him  alone ;  and  that  Christ  cannot 
be  the  true  ]\ressia]i,  unless  he  rose  from  the 
dead,  according  to  tlie  Scriptures.  Hence,  to 
set  aside  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  to  set 

I  "Man  in  Death,"  p.  81. 


BIBLICAL    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.         Ill 

aside  the  whole  economy  of  grace.  Well,  then, 
may  the  apostle  say  to  believers  in  Jesus,  "  If 
Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain ;  ye  are 
yet  in  your  sins^  If  the  doctrine  of  the  ortho- 
dox were  this,  that  the  followers  of  Christ  are 
to  be  saved  because  of  their  holiness  and  self- 
denial,  there  might  be  some  force  in  Ham's  ap- 
peal ;  but  since,  in  their  judgment,  the  most  ear- 
nest and  self-sacrificing  Christian  has  no  title  in 
himself  to  the  favor  of  God,  but  is  to  be  saved 
in  consideration  of  Christ's  work  alone,  there  is 
in  it  no  force  at  all.  Says  Dr.  Hodge  :  "  Per- 
dition, according  to  Scripture,  is  not  annihilation, 
but  everlasting  misery  and  sin.  It  is  the  loss  of 
holiness  and  happiness  forever.  If  Christ  did 
not  rise  for  the  justification  of  those  who  died  in 
him,  they  found  no  advocate  at  the  bar  of  God, 
and  have  incurred  the  fate  of  those  who  perished 
in  their  sins." 

This  evidently  is  the  apostle's  meaning  in  the 
verse  before  us ;  and  it  perfectly  agrees  with  the 
representations  which  he  everywhere  makes  of 
the  way  of  life.  There  is  therefore  no  reason 
for  rejecting  the  "  theological  sense  of  the  word 
perish^  as  most  awfully  and  insultingly  absurd," 
for  this  passage. 

We  may  notice,  in  the  next  place,  the  words, 


112         STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

"  Who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  de- 
struction from  the  presence  of  the  Lord;  and 
from  the  glory  of  his  power."  ^  We  first  inquire 
what  is  the  relation  here  expressed  by  dn6.  (1) 
Some  have  said  it  is  a  temporal  relation;  the 
word  here  signifies  aftcrj  and  marks  the  terminus 
a  quo,  the  date  from  and  after  which  the  pun- 
ishment is  to  be  suffered.  But  the  instances  in 
which  (irro  refers  to  time  are  in  the  first  place 
very  rare,  and  in  the  next  quite  unlike  the  one 
before  us,  since  from  the  nature  of  the  genitive 
following  it,  it  is  known  to  designate  a  terminus 
a  quo.  2  This  interpretation  may  also  be  consid- 
ered well  nigh  obsolete.  (2)  Others  have  said 
it  is  a  causal  relation ;  the  punishment  is  repre- 
sented by  unb,  etc.,  as  proceeding  from  the  face, 
or  presence,  and  from  the  glory  of  God,  as  its 
source  or  efficient  cause.  But  they  arbitrarily 
explain  the  expression  '^  from  the  face  of  the 
Lord  "  as  synonymous  with  "  from  the  Lord,"  or 
they  explain  ngoawnov  of  an  angry  or  darTc  counte- 
nance, which  is  no  less  arbitrary.  (3)  Others, 
still,  have  said  it  is  a  local  relation ;  utto  here 
expresses  the  idea  of  separation  or  absence,  and 
tlie  thought  is,  "  away  from  the  presence  of  the 

1  2  Thcps.  i.  9. 

2  Rom.  i.  20,  dr-d  Kritrfuf  tcda^ov  (from  the  foundation  of  (he  world), 
and  Pliil.  i.  5,  ari  rrjjTfxj.^rr  fiucpar  {from  thefrst  day.) 


BIBLICAL   OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED.         113 

Lord,  and  the  glory  of  his  power."  This  expla- 
nation gives  to  TTQoawTvov  its  full  significance,  for 
the  face  or  presence  of  the  Lord  is  a  well-known 
Biblical  designation  of  the  source  of  true  bless- 
edness, ^  and  separation  therefrom  of  misery. 
Besides,  this  interpretation  best  accords  with 
the  following  verse.  It  is  advocated  by  Alford 
and  Lunemann,  ^  given  by  Robinson  in  his  Lexi- 
con, and  preferred  by  Olshausen.  Ellicott  closes 
his  examination  of  drro  by  saying,  "  We  therefore 
adopt  the  simply  local  translation,  according  to 
which  Ccnd  marks  the  idea  of  ^  separation  from/ 
while  7TQou6nov  jov  -/.vQiov  retains  its  proper  mean- 
ing and  specifies  that  perennial  fountain  of  bless- 
edness to  be  separated  from  which  will  consti- 
tute the  true  essence  of  the  i^oena  damni.''''  This 
view  we  deem  correct;  and  if  it  be  so,  the 
"everlasting  perdition"  spoken  of  results  in 
part,  if  not  chiefly,  from  a  want  of  fellowship 
with  God,  and  pre-supposes  the  continuance 
rather  than  the  extinction  of  conscious  being. 

In  his  first  letter  to  Timothy,  Paul  speaks  of 
"  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  which  plunge  the  men 
into  destruction  and  perdition ;  "  ^  that  is  to 
say,  into  utter  and  irretrievable  ruin.  The  second 

1  The  able  continuator  of  Meyer's  commentary. 

2  1  Tim.  vi.  9.  i 

10* 


114         STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

noun  seems  in  this  place  to  be  more  emphatic 
than  the  first  —  (inwAf/a  than  oled^oo;  —  although 
elsewhere  New  Testament  writers  employ  either 
of  them,  and  indiscriminately,  to  denote  the  final 
doom  of  unbelievers.  Now,  let  it  be  observed, 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  context  which  re- 
quires us  to  understand  these  terms  as  denot- 
ing an  extinction  of  being.  If  they  signify  this, 
it  is  purely  vi  termini,  by  virtue  of  their  inherent 
force,  and  not  by  virtue  of  any  associated  word 
or  clause,  which  favors  such  a  signification. 
The  same,  also,  may  be  said  of  every  passage 
thus  far  examined ;  none  of  the  adjuncts  point  to 
extinction  of  being,  and  determine  this  to  be  the 
meaning  of  ^  destruction,'  or  '  perdition,'  when 
predicated  of  the  soul.  Two  of  them  naturally 
suggest  a  different  meaning.  We  are  therefore 
bound  to  inquire  whether  the  words  have  not 
another  sense  equally  adapted  to  these  passages, 
and  at  the  same  time  consistent  with  all  similar 
statements  in  the  word  of  God. 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  the  first  place,  that 
the  New  Testament,  as  well  as  the  Old,  gener- 
ally employs  the  language  of  common  life.  Its 
style  is  popular,  and  therefore  figurative.  Instead 
of  defining  its  leading  terms  beforehand,  and 
then    using    them    always    with    philosophical 


BIBLICAL    OSJECTIOXS    COXSIDERED.         115 

accuracy  in  the  same  sense,  it  freely  adopts  the 
vital  and  elastic  speech  of  real  life,  and  abounds 
in  metaphor,  comparison,  and  parable.  The  af- 
fluence of  its  imagery  is  truly  oriental.  But  this 
imagery  rests  upon  definite  truth,  unbending  real- 
ity. The  point  of  difficulty,  then,  lies  in  ascer- 
taining the  exact  idea  which  is  represented  by 
a  particular  metaphor  or  parable.  To  do  this 
it  is  often  necessary  to  compare  difi"erent  repre- 
sentations of  the  same  idea,  event,  or  process, 
as  e  g.  the  different  pictures  of  the  state  of  the 
lost  hereafter. 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  the  second  place,  that 
nearly  all  words  have  a  tropical  as  well  as  a  lit- 
eral use.  A  resemblance,  perhaps,  in  but  a  sin- 
gle point,  is  perceived  between  that  which  a 
word  literally  signifies  and  something  else  quite 
different  in  other  respects ;  yet  the  word  is  ap- 
plied for  want  of  a  better,  or  for  the  sake  of  vi- 
vacity. A  poet  is  said  to  soar  on  the  wings  of 
imagination,  and  a  report  to  fly  through  the  city  j 
thoughts  are  said  to  be  dark  or  bright,  and  af- 
fections to  be  cold  or  warm.  On  the  same  prin- 
ciple, Christ  is  called  a  lion,  a  lamb,  a  shepherd, 
a  vine,  a  root,  a  branch,  &c.,  and  the  further  back 
we  trace  the  history  of  any  language,  the  great- 
er shall  we  find  to  be  the  number  and  variety  of 


116  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

meanings  given  to  a  word  by  the  context.  This 
results  from  the  fact,  that  in  the  order  of  nature 
and  development,  thought  goes  before  speech. 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  the  third  place,  that  the 
manifold  use  of  the  term  "death"  in  the  word  of 
God  leads  us  to  anticipate  a  similar  use  of  the  sim- 
ilar term  "  destruction."  The  latter  is  no  more 
precise  or  descriptive  in  its  meaning  than  the 
former ;  and  if  it  were,  this  would  afford  no  argu- 
ment against  a  figurative  use  of  it.  Hence,  if  the 
adjuncts  of  the  term  "death,"  when  applied  to  the 
final  state  of  unbelievers,  justify  us  in  attributing 
to  them  conscious  being  in  that  state,  they  cer- 
tainly justify  us  in  doing  the  same,  although  de- 
struction, or  eternal  destruction,  is  predicated  of 
unbelievers  in  that  state.  These  adjuncts,  we 
mean  to  say,  are  sufficient  of  themselves  to  estab- 
lish a  tropical  use  of  the  leading  terms,  had  we 
no  other  instance  of  such  a  use  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament. 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  the  fourtli  place,  that 
the  Greek  root,  which,  together  with  its  deriv- 
atives, is  often  represented  by  the  words  to  "de- 
stroy," "destruction,"  and  "perdition,"  is  used 
not  unfrcquently  in  the  New  Testament,  apart 
also  from  the  case  under  consideration,  wlien  the 
object  of  which  they  are  affirmed  continues  to 


BIBLICAL   OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED.         117 

exist,  and  is  conceived  of  as  existing.  The  im- 
portance of  this  statement  will  be  at  once  recog- 
nized, and  the  propriety  of  illustrating  its  truth 
admitted. 

We  commence  with  the  words  of  Christ: 
""Whosoever  shall  give  to  drink  unto  one  of  these 
little  ones  a  cup  of  cold  water  only,  in  the  name 
of  a  disciple,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  shall  not 
lose  his  reward."  1  It  would  not,  perhaps,  be 
a  very  great  refinement  of  criticism  to  say,  that 
the  object  of  the  verb;  the  reward,  is  here  con- 
ceived of  as  belonging,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  the 
subject ;  it  is  his  by  promise,  or  in  equity,  and 
therefore  he  may  be  said  to  lose  it.  Yet  it  is 
equally  probable  that  anoUari  means  "  to  lose," 
in  the  sense  of  "to  fail  of."  The  compound 
word  is  not  intensive,  as  some  have  averred,  for 
Christ  surely  did  not  mean  to  intimate  that  the 
benefactor  described  might  partially,  though  not 
utterly^  lose  his  reward.  But  we  would  invite 
special  attention  to  the  fact,  that  (xnoUar]  does 
not  here  signify  to  destroy  or  put  an  end  to 
its  object,  but  rather  to  lose — loose  —  let  go 
that  object,  or,  what  is  equivalent,  to  fail  of  hav- 
ing and  holding  it.     This  verb,  which  is  relied 

1  Matt.  X.  42. :  cf.  Mark  ix.  41. 


118  STATE    OP   THE    DIPENITEXT    DEAD. 

upon  to  prove  the  extinction  of  personal  being, 
simply  marks  in  this  place  the  sundering  of  a  con- 
nection, the  dissolving  of  a  relation.  The  ob- 
ject of  it  may  still  exist,  but  the  tie  which  binds 
together  object  and  subject  is  no  more.  To  put 
the  matter  in  another  and  more  usual  form: 
Destruction  involves  loss ;  hence  the  verb  signi- 
fying to  destroy  has  also  the  meaning  to  lose,  a 
derived  sense,  and  may  be  used  where  the  ob- 
ject in  question  is  not  itself  destroyed. 

Again,  we  read  as  follows :  '-  What  man  of 
you,  if  he  have  an  hundred  sheep,  and  lose  one  of 
them,  doth  not  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  in  the 
wilderness,  and  go  after  that  which  is  lost  ?  "  ^ 
Here  verb  and  participle  are  both  employed, 
signifying  "  to  lose  "  and  "  lost."  The  lost  sheep 
is  still  in  existence,  and  is  eagerly  sought  by  the 
shepherd.  But  its  connection  with  the  latter  is 
sundered,  and  for  this  reason  it  is  declared  to  be 
lost — dcrtoXojlo;.  Passing  now  from  the  parable 
to  the  thing  signified,  Christ  represents  sinners 
as  lost  or  destroyed.  By  wandering  away  from 
God,  they  have  destroyed  themselves ;  by  send- 
ing them  away  from  himself,  God  will  ultimately 
de^roy  them.    In  both  cases,  it  is  the  separation 

1  Luke  XV.  4. 


BIBLICAL  OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED.         119 

of  the  soul  from  God,  the  sundering  of  the  con- 
nection and  communion  which  normally  bind 
them  together,  that  constitutes  the  destruction 
or  the  loss  of  the  soul.  When  the  King  shall 
say  to  those  on  his  left  hand,  "  Depart  from  me," 
and  '-these  shall  go  aicaij  into  everlasting  pun- 
ishment," then  will  the  final  perdition  ^  of  the 
soul  be  brought  to  pass. 

Another  passage  in  the  same  chapter  will  re- 
pay examination :  "  This  my  son  was  dead  and  is 
alive  again,  was  lost  and  is  found."  -  It  is  to  be 
distinctly  noted,  that  the  father  of  the  prodigal 
does  not  seem  at  any  time  to  have  lost  sight  of 
his  son,  or  to  have  supposed  him  physically  dead. 
^'  He  speaks,"  says  Euthymius  Zigabenus  correct- 
ly, "  of  the  dcadness  and  destruction  which  flow 
from  sin,  and  of  the  reviving  and  finding  which 
flow  from  repentance."  ^  He  speaks  as  God 
would  speak  of  the  sinner ;  for  "  God  loveth  all 
men,  and  counts  that  as  "  lost "  in  itself  which 
he  cannot  feed  and  bless,  and  save  forever." 
When  we  hear  in  this  parable  a  father  saying 
of  his  son,  now  in  his  house  :  "  This  my  son  was 

dead — ^j/  vexod; — and  was  lost  —  -^i/  c/TroAwAw;  "  — 

1  Compare  the  word  a-6U.vni  with  its  synon}Tn  ptrdcre^  in  the 
Greek  Lexicon  of  Liddell  and  Scott  and  Latin  Lexicon  of  Andrews; 
and  note  especially  the  use  of  ptrdilus  in  a  moral  sense. 

2  Luke  XV.  2-i,  32.  2  Quoted  from  Meyer,  in  loco. 


120  STATE    OF    THE    DIPEXITEXT    DEAD. 

a  fact  in  the  past,  and  also  bear  in  mind  that  the 
father  had  known  all  aloni?  the  conduct  of  his 
son,^  and  therefore  could  not  speak  of  him  as 
dead,  in  this  sense  merely,  that  he  had  supposed 
him  to  be  so,  we  must  be  convinced  that  the 
words  "dead"  and  "lost"  refer  to  moral  char- 
acter, to  the  total  separation  in  spirit  of  the  son 
from  the  father,  in  a  word,  to  his  spiritual  death ; 
and  at  the  same  time  we  must  be  convinced  that 
the  words  "death"  and  "destruction"  do  not, 
when  predicated  of  the  soul,  involve  its  ex- 
tinction. 

Again,  an  "unclean  spirit"  is  said  to  have 
cried  out  to  Jesus :  "  Hast  thou  come  to  destroy 
us  ?  "  Are  we,  then,  to  conclude  that  this  demon 
was  in  fear  of  immediate  annihilation  ?  Or  may 
we  believe  that  he  was  in  fear  of  penal  confine- 
ment ?  The  language  of  a  passage  in  Matthew 
may  assist  us  in  replying  to  these  questions.  For 
the  demons  are  there  reported  to  have  said,  "Hast 
thou  come  hither  to  torment  us  before  the  time  ?  " 
etc. 2  The  verb  employed  by  them,  Buaavioai^ 
reminds  us  at  once  of  the  rich  man,  "  who  in 
hades  lifted  up  his  eyes,  being  iv  Suadcvoig,^^  (in 
torments.)     So,  also,  we  are  told  in  Luke, ^  that 

1  Sec  verse  30.  2  Matt  viii.  8, 29.  8  Luke  viii.  31. 


BIBLICAL   OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED.         121 

the  evil  spirits  besought  Christ  not  to  send  them 
away  into  the  abyss.  And  by  examining  the 
use  of  u^vaaog  in  the  New  Testament  it  will  be 
found  to  denote  a  place  of  darkness  and  torment, 
the  abode  or  prison-house  of  Satan  and  his 
angels.  ^ 

Now,  if  fallen  spirits  were  spoken  of  in  the 
Scriptures  as  being  at  present  in  a  state  of 
blessedness,  or  even  of  freedom  from  misery,  we 
might  easily  account  for  their  dread  of  annihil- 
ation ;  but  if  they  are  represented  as  being  now 
in  a  state  of  woe,  and  if  annihilation  is  so  much 
less  appalliug  than  endless  suffering  as  we  are 
told,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  account  for  their  de- 
precating the  final  hour  and  the  eternal  sleep. 
Besides,  the  language,  "Hast  thou  come  to  tor- 
ment us  before  the  time  ?  "  implies  that  fallen 
spirits  look  forward  to  a  predestined  epoch  of 
special  suffering  —  a  time  when  Christ  shall,  in 
a  very  eminent  degree,  affiict  them.  The  word 
^acraviaat  refers  to  the  infliction  of  suffering  upon 
a  coiiscious  being,  and  does  not  accord  with  the 
idea  of  extinction.  It  is  one  thing  to  annihilate, 
and  quite  another  thing  to  "  torment"  a  spiritual 
being. 

1  Rev.  ix.  1,  2, 11;  xi.  7;  xvii.  18;  xx.  13;  2  Pet.  ii.  4. 
11 


122  STATE    OF   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

And,  still  further :  "  The  angel  of  the  bottom- 
less pit "  is  called  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  Abad- 
do7i,  and  in  the  Greek  Aj)olhjo7i,  both  words  sig- 
nifying destroyer;  chiefly,  we  think,  because  he 
perverts  and  morally  destroys  the  souls  of  men ; 
certainly  not  because  he  annihilates  their  con- 
scious being,  nor  indeed  because  he  inflicts  upon 
the  ungodly  their  final  doom.  It  is  not  quite 
clear  to  our  mind  how  those  who  insist  so  much 
upon  the  literal  sense  of  words,  and  who  main- 
tain that  death  and  destruction,  whether  affirmed 
of  body  or  of  spirit,  signify  extinction  of  being, 
are  to  explain  the  name  Abaddon,  and  yet  assert 
that  "the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  the  glory 
of  his  power"  will,  at  the  last,  flash  unconscious- 
ness into  the  souls  of  the  wicked,  and  petrify 
them  forever.  Whom  is  Apollyon  to  destroy 
if  Christ  puts  an  end  to  the  impenitent  ?  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  the  great  adversary  is  to 
blot  out  the  soul  hereafter,  then,  doubtless,  the 
words  of  Christ,  according  to  the  dismal  inter- 
pretation of  Stier,  warn  us  to  fear  the  devil, 
"  who  is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in 
hell,"  though  very  few,  we  think,  will  be  able  to 
bear  this  interpretation. 

The  result  of  our  examination  is  this :  That 
the  words  "  destruction,"  "  perdition,"  etc.,  need 


BIBLICAL   OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.         123 

not,  when  predicated  of  the  spirit,  be  supposed 
to  assert,  vi  termini,  or  by  reason  of  their  in- 
trinsic force,  the  extinction  of  its  conscious 
being;  and  that  the  adjuncts  employed  with 
these  words  prove  that  they  do  not  involve  or 
affirm  such  extinction.  And  it  may  be  added, 
that  the  use  of  the  Greek  words  thus  translated 
by  classical  writers  corroborates  the  result  just 
given.  We  rest,  therefore,  with  a  strengthened 
conviction  of  its  truth,  in  the  long-established 
belief  of  Christendom  that  the  impenitent  dead 
will  be  forever  conscious  and  miserable.  We 
rest  in  this  doctrine,  not  because  reason  teaches 
it,  or  feeling  welcomes  it,  but  because  it  is  clearly 
revealed,  as  we  judge,  by  One  who  is  just  and 
true,  as  well  as  benevolent,  and  who  declares, 
"Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my 
words  shall  not  pass  away."  ^  It  is  a  great  and 
terrible  doctrine,  not  to  be  received  with  any 
due  sense  of  its  solemnity  except  by  him  whose 
conscience  feels  the  unspeakable  guilt  of  sin,  and 
whose  heart  says  with  Job :  "  I  have  heard  of 
thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but  now  mine 
eye  seeth  thee ;  wherefore  I  abhor  myself,  and 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes."  ^ 

1  Matt.  xxiv.  35.  2  Job.  xlii.  5,  6. 


SECTION    YI. 

FURTHER  OBJECTIONS  CONSmERED. 

(l)T4iE  DEAD  PRONOUNCED  CNCONSCIOCS  BY  OLD  TESTAMENT  VTl  ...eRS. — 
REPLY  TO  THIS  STATEMENT.  —  (2)  THE  LANGUAGE  OF  THE  APOSTOLICAL 
FATHERS  AND  EARLY  APOLOGISTS  CONFIRMATORY  OF  THE  PRECEDING 
OBJECTIONS.  —  THIS  ASSUMPTION   SHOWN   TO   BE   INCORRECT. 

We  come  now  to  a  minor  objection  ui-ged 
against  the  doctrine  of  this  essay,  namely, — 

III.  The  dead  are  declared  to  be  in  a  perfectly 
inactive  and  powerless  state j  body  and  sold;  hence 
death  is  an  event  which  puts  an  end  to  conscious 
existence. 

Of  the  many  passages  in  the  Old  Testament 
which  are  alleged  in  support  of  this  proposition, 
a  few  only  can  be  submitted  to  brief  examina- 
tion in  these  pages ;  but  these  few  will  be  spec- 
imens of  the  entire  class,  and  will  enable  us  to 
test  the  interpretation  given  to  all. 

The  Psalmist,  speaking  of  princes,  of  the  son 
of  man  in  whom  there  is  no  help,  says :  "  His 
breath  goeth  forth,  he  rcturneth  to  his  earth ;  in 


FURTHER   OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.         125 

that  very  day  his  thoughts  perish."  ^  It  will  be 
sufficient  to  remark  that  the  word  in  the  last 
clause  which  is  rendered  "thoughts"  signifies 
the  counsels  or  plans  of  princes  and  great  men. 
These  shall  all  fail,  and  come  to  nought.  ''Sicut,'' 
remarks  Calvin,  "  i^hrenetlcus  ille  Alexander 
Macedo,  quum  audiret  ])lures  esse  immdos,  deflevit 
se  nondim  uno  potitum  esse,  pernio  post  autem  sar- 
cophago  conteiitus  fiiit.''  Again,  the  Preacher 
saith,  "All  which  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do 
with  thy  might ;  for  there  is  no  work,  nor  device, 
nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom,  in  Sheol,  whither 
thou  art  going.  ^  Here  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
cite  a  paragraph  from  the  work  of  Mr.  Hudson. 
"  The  argument  to  prove  unconsciousness  is 
often  based  on  the  expressions,  ^  the  dead  know 
not  anything ; '  '  their  love,  and  their  hatred, 
and  their  envy,  is  now  perished ; '  and,  '  there  is 
no  work,  nor  device,  nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom, 
in  the  grave  whither  thou  goest.'  But  these  ex- 
pressions are  evidently  the  conclusion  of  an 
epicurean  argument,  including  the  denial  of  all 
future  life,  which  the  ^preacher  had  taken  up.'  ^ 
It  is  certainly  possible  that  we  have  in  the  book 
of  Ecclesiastes  a  record  of  the  perplexmg  doubts 

1  Psalms  cxlvi.  4.        2  EccI.  ix.  10.       s  »  Futixre  Life,"  p.  262. 
11^ 


126  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

and  fruitless  speculations  of  a  mind  sorely  tossed 
by  the  mysteries  of  Providence,  and  passing  on 
through  a  period  of  skepticism  to  simple  faith ;  ^ 
and;  if  so,  our  passage  might  obviously  repre- 
sent, not  the  final  and  correct  belief  of  Solomon, 
but  an  earlier  and  lurid  speculation.  But  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  resort  to  this  hypothesis  ; 
for  we  may  find  a  key  to  the  whole  paragraph 
in  the  last  clause  of  the  sixth  verse :  ^  Neither 
have  they  any  more  a  portion  forever  iji  any- 
thing that  is  done  under  the  sun.^ "  The  writer 
seems  to  have  in  mind  the  entire  separation 
of  the  dead  from  this  earthly  life  and  all  its 
activities.  If  his  language  is  interpreted  of 
personal  existence  ^7cr  sc,  witliout  restriction, 
it  militates  against  any  consciousness  forever, 
and  therefore  against  the  plain  teaching  of 
Christ. 

Again,  the  Lord  declares  by  Jeremiah  the 
prophet,  in  respect  to  the  princes,  sages,  and 
mighty  men  of  Babylon,  "  they  shall  sleep  a  per- 
petual  sleep,  and  not  awake.'' ^  Now  a  future 
resurrection,  whether  followed  by  annihilation 
or   by   misery,   is    inconsistent   with    a   literal 

1  See  "The  Preaching  of  Ecclesiastes,"  by  Rev.  J.  A.  Goodhue, 
Chr.  Rev.  1854. 

2  Jeremiah  vi.  57. 


FURTHER   OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED.         127 

interpretation  of  these  words.  Yet  there  will  be, 
as  we  are  taught  by  the  word  of  God,  a  resurrec- 
tion both  of  the  just  and  of  the  unjust.  "All  that 
are  in  their  graves  shall  hear  his  voice  and  shall 
come  forth."  1  Hence  we  must  give  up  the  truth 
and  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  or  the  literal  sense 
;of  the  verse  before  us.  And  no  thoughtful  man, 
who  understands  the  use  of  speech  in  animated 
prose  or  in  poetry,  will  hesitate  for  a  moment 
which  to  do.  To  sleep  a  perpetual  sleep,  a 
sleep  which  knows  no  waking,  here  refers  to 
death  as  an  ultimate  closing  of  the  eye  upon 
worldly  scenes,  a  sleep  from  which  one  does  not 
presently  awake  to  resume  the  business  of  this 
world,  a  final  sleep  removing  princes  and  mighty 
men  from  the  theatre  of  their  pride  into  the 
"  silent  land,"  "  that  undiscovered  country  from 
whose  bourne  no  traveller  returns." 

For  the  sake  of  brevity  we  present  the  fol- 
lowing passages  in  a  group,  appending  to  them 
a  few  words  of  explanation:  "For  in  death 
there  is  no  remembrance  of  thee ;  in  the  grave 
who  shall  give  thee  thanks  ?  "  "  What  profit  is 
there  in  my  blood,  when  I  go  down  to  the  pit  ? 
Shall  the  dust  praise  thee?     Shall  it  declare 

1  John  V.  28. 


128  STATE   OP  THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

thy  truth  ?  "  "  Wilt  thou  show  wonders  to  the 
dead?  Shall  the  dead  arise  and  praise  thee? 
Shall  thy  loving  kindness  be  declared  in  the 
grave  ?  thy  faithfulness  in  corruption  ?  Shall 
thy  wonders  be  known  in  the  dark?  and  thy 
righteousness  in  the  land  of  forgetfulness  ? " 
"  The  dead  praise  not  God,  neither  any  that  go 
down  into  silence."  "For  the  grave  cannot 
praise  thee,  death  cannot  celebrate  thee ;  they 
that  go  down  into  the  pit  cannot  hope  for  thy 
truth.  The  living,  the  living,  he  shall  praise 
thee,  as  I  do  this  day."  ^ 

These  and  similar  expressions  to  be  found  in 
the  Old  Testament  do  unquestionably,  at  first 
sight,  and  taken  by  themselves,  suggest  the  idea 
of  unconsciousness  after  death.  They  refer,  also, 
it  will  be  perceived,  in  a  majority  of  instances, 
to  the  righteous,  and,  according  to  their  lyrima 
facie  import,  exclude  the  prospect  of  a  resurrec- 
tion.2  If  it  makes  no  difference  to  a  good  man 
at  the  point  of  death,  whether  he  will  continue 
conscious  in  another  world,  or  fall  asleep  for  a 
million  ages  to  wake  as  from  a  moment's  slum- 

1  Ps.  vi,  6;  XXX.  10;  Ixxxviii.  10-12;  cxv.  17;  Isa.  xxxviii.  18, 
19. 

2  This  is  admitted  by  Mr.  Hudson ;  and  tlierefore  he  does  not  rely 
upon  these  expressions  to  prove  unconsciousness  during  the  inter- 
mediate state.  —  p.  2G2. 


FURTHER    OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED.         129 

ber  at  the  last  trumpet,  these  "  holy  men  of  old," 
looking  forward  to  a  resurrection  of  the  body, 
could  not  have  used  the  language  cited  by  us, 
nor  could  they  have  written  "as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost/'  words  which  are 
inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  The 
passages  adduced  cannot,  therefore,  be  explained 
as  a  complete  account  of  the  departed,  but  only 
as  a  statement  of  their  relation  to  this  world, 
and  to  the  glory  of  God  in  bringing  men  to  a 
saving  knowledge  of  the  truth.  They  find  a  nat- 
ural explanation  in  the  words  of  Paul,  "  For  me 
to  live  is  Christ,"  because  I  can  thereby  most 
signally  honor  his  name.  The  inspired  poets, 
whose  language  has  been  cited,  felt  that  their 
homage  and  praise  were  eminently  well  pleasing 
to  God,  when  offered  in  a  revolted  province  of 
his  empire,  to  further  his  holy  cause  by  celebrat- 
ing "  his  mighty  acts  and  the  glorious  majesty 
of  his  kingdom."  With  this  plea  they  came  be- 
fore God  to  ask  for  a  continuance  of  life,  espe- 
cially as  they  were  threatened  by  the  enemies 
of  Jehovah,  and  their  death  would  be  the  signal 
of  triumph  to  his  foes.  The  view  now  suggested 
rests,  we  are  free  to  confess,  upon  a  rapid  sur- 
vey of  the  passages  in  question ;  for  it  was  felt 
that  their  bearing  upon  the  doctrine  of  man's 


130  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

existence  after  clcatli,  must  be  determined  by  the 
clearer  revelations  made  by  Christ,  and  not  the 
reverse ;  it  afifords  ns,  therefore,  great  pleasure 
to  subjoin  a  different  view  from  a  careful  investi- 
gator. "  The  writers  of  the  Old  Testament 
generally  speak  of  death  as  to  its  effects  on  the 
physical  organization,  and  its  results  in  relation 
to  the  concerns  and  interests  of  this  world. 
They  speak  just  as  we  frequently  do  of  death 
and  the  grave.  We  admonish  our  fellow-men  to 
to  work  while  the  day  lasts,  because  the  night 
comcth,  and  that  in  the  grave  there  is  no  knowl- 
edge or  work ;  and  so  did  those  writers.  But 
neither  they  nor  we,  in  these  expressions,  assert 
anything  for  or  against  the  unconsciousness  of 
the  soul.  We  do  not  believe,  and  we  suppose 
that  they  did  not  believe,  that  the  soul  is  buried 
with  the  body  in  the  grave.  We  thus  explain 
the  passages  already  cited  ^  as  referring  to  phys- 
ical death,  and  to  the  grave  as  the  silent  recep- 
tacle of  the  body  after  the  soul  has  left  it."^ 

It  has  also  been  claimed,  — 

IV.  TJiat  the  doctrine  of  this  essay  was  nnlaiown 
to  the  primitive  church,  and  must  therefore  he  un- 

1  Job  xiv.  12  ;  Ps.  xlix.   14  ;  cxv.  17  ;  Eccl.  Lx.  10;  and  Isa. 
xxxviii.  18,  19. 

2  Mcth.  Rev.  ut  supra,  p.  242. 


FURTHER    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.         131 

scrijJturaL  Those  wlio  make  this  clahn  do  not, 
of  course,  pretend  that  the  primitive  Christians 
fully  apprehended  the  entire  contents  of  Scrip- 
tm^e,  hut  only  that  the  doctrine  in  question  is 
one  of  which  they  could  not  have  been  ignorant. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  say,  this  doctrine  was 
gradually  brought  over  from  pagan  philosophy 
into  the  creed  of  the  church.  The  apostolical 
fathers  make  no  certain  allusion  to  it ;  and  their 
successors,  the  early  apologists,  have  it,  if  at  all, 
as  the  result  of  pagan  culture.  In  replying  to 
this  objection  we  shall  first  speak  of  the  apos- 
tolical fathers. 

And  it  is  to  be  lamented  that  they  either 
wrote  very  little,  or  else  their  writings  have,  for 
the  most  part,  perished.  All  the  Christian  liter- 
ature to  be  relied  on  as  authentic,  now  in  ex- 
istence from  the  first  quarter  of  the  second 
century,  may  be  comprised  in  a  small  volume ; 
and  this  literature  is  intensely  practical,  touching 
but  lightly  and  incidentally  on  points  of  doctrine. 
The  authors  of  it  were  separated  by  a  very  wide 
interval  from  their  inspired  teachers.  We  may 
think  of  them  as  earnest,  devout,  practical  men, 
repeating  the  simple  story  of  the  cross,  occupied 
with  pastoral  labor,  and  encountering  with  noble 
heroism  the  dangers  incident  to  their  post ;  but 


132  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

we  should  greatly  err  in  supposing  them  to  have 
been  distinguished  for  accurate  knowledge  or 
logical  thought.  Hence  it  was  natural  for  them 
to  present  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  in  the 
very  words  of  Scripture,  giving  us  often  no  cer- 
tain clue  to  their  interpretation  of  the  language ; 
and  so  it  happens,  that  every  denomination  of 
Christians  is  able  to  employ  their  words  with 
more  or  less  confidence  in  support  of  its  own 
creed.  For  doctrinal  statements  couched  in 
phrases  borrowed  from  the  word  of  God,  may 
be  easily  understood  by  the  reader  as  he  has 
concluded  to  understand  the  sacred  record. 
With  these  remarks  we  pass  to  the  testimony, 
and  find  it,  as  might  have  been  expected,  pain- 
fully meagre.  Still,  though  meagre,  it  is  not  un- 
worthy to  be  heard. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Ephesians,  Ignatius  testi- 
fies that  whoever  "  corrupts  the  faith  of  God 
by  evil  doctrine,  shall  go  into  unquenchable 
fiire-''^  In  the  epistle  to  Diognetus  we  read: 
"Then  shalt  thou  condemn  the  deceit  and  error 
of  the  world,  when  thou  shalt  know  the  true  life 
in  heaven ;  when  thou  shalt  despise  the  seeming 
death  here ;  when  thou  shalt  fear  the  true  death 
which  is  kept  in  store  for  those  who   shall  be 

1  C.  IG ;  cf.  his  Ep.  to  tho  Romans,  c.  2  and  4. 


FURTHER    OBJECTIOXS    CONSIDERED.        133 

condemned  to  the  eternal  fire,  which  will  torment 
them  who  are  committed  to  it  unto  the  end."  ^ 
In  the  account  of  Polycarp's  death  we  read  that 
the  martyrs,  '•'  giving-  heed  to  the  grace  of  Christ, 
despised  earthly  torments,  purchasing  release 
in  one  hour  from  eternal  punishment.  And  the 
fire  of  their  harsh  tormentors  was  cool  to  them; 
for  they  had  before  their  eyes  an  escape  from 
the  eternal  fire  which  is  never  to  be  quenched," 
furiSsTioie  a^evvv/nEvoi^  nvg.  2  From  the  Shep- 
herd of  Hermas^  we  extract  the  following  pas- 
sages :  "  Again  he  showed  me  many  trees,  some 
of  which  were  putting  forth  leaves,  and  others 
were  dry.  Those  trees  which  are  green,  (said 
he,)  are  the  just,  who  shall  dwell  in  the  future 
world.  For  this  future  world  is  summer  to  the 
just,  but  winter  to  sinners."  And,  a  few  lines 
below,  it  is  said  that  "  sinners  shall  be  burned 
as  dry  wood."*  In  another  place  the  Shep- 
herd compares  apostates  and  betrayers  of  the 
church  to  ^"  dry,  rotten,  and,  as  it  were,  worm- 
eaten  branches,"  and,  then,  says  :  "  All  these  are 
dead  unto  God,  and  thou  seest  no  one  of  them 
exercising  repentance."^     Is  not  the  moral  or 

1  Ep.  to  Diog.  c.  10.  2  Martyr.  Polycarpi.  c.  2. 

s  Written,  perhaps,  as  late  as  A.D.  150. 

4  L.  III.  Simil.  4.  6  L.  III.  SimU.  8.  c.  6. 

12 


134:  STATE    OF    THE    IMPEXITEXT    DEAD. 

spiritual  nature  of  man  here  referred  to  ?  We 
are  inclined  to  think  there  is  no  reference  in  this 
passage  to  the  idea  of  personal  existence  as  such. 
We  cannot,  of  course,  transcribe  every  expres- 
sion which  seems  to  bear  upon  the  topic  of  this 
essay;  but  unless  we  are  mistaken,  the  most  de- 
cisive evidence  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of 
the  apostolic  fathers  has  now  been  presented; 
and  according  to  this  evidence  it  is  not  safe  to 
affirm  that  they  were  either  ignorant  of,  or  hos- 
tile to,  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  consciousness 
of  unbelievers.  By  every  impartial  student  their 
language  will  be  understood  to  coincide  with 
that  of  Scripture,  and  will  therefore  be  inter- 
preted in  harmony  with  his  own  views  of  the 
Scriptural  doctrine. 

Let  us  now  come  down  to  the  early  apologists. 
It  is,  however,  but  a  single  step  ;  for  Justin 
Martyr,  who  opens  the  series,  was  born  in  Pales- 
tine about  the  close  of  the  first  century.  His 
first  apology  was  addressed  to  the  Roman  em- 
perors in  the  year  of  our  Lord  138  or  139.  It 
is  an  elaborate  production,  of  unquestionable 
integrity,  and  worthy  of  our  serious  consider- 
ation. In  this  apology  he  says  to  the  emperor 
and  his  associate  :  "  If  you  care  not  for  us  who 
offer  our  petition  and  exhibit  plainly  the  whole 


FURTHER   OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.        135 

truth,  we  shall  not  be  injured  in  the  least,  since 
we  believe,  or  rather  are  fully  assured,  that  each 
one  will  suffer  imnishment  hij  eternal  fire  accord- 
ing to  the  desert  of  his  actions,  and  that  he 
will  give  account  to  God  according  to  the  abil- 
ities which  he  has  received,  as  Christ  announced, 
saying,  '  To  whom  God  gave  more,  of  him  like- 
wise shall  more  be  demanded.'  "  (c.  17.)  Again, 
speaking  of  the  Messiah :  "  The  prophets  fore- 
told two  comings  of  him ;  one  which  has  already 
transpired,  when  he  came  as  a  despised  and  suf- 
fering man,  but  the  other,  when  he  will  come, 
as  we  i^reach,  with  glory  from  heaven  with  his 
angelic  host  \  when,  also,  he  will  raise  the  bodies 
of  all  men  who  have  existed,  and  will  clothe 
those  who  are  worthy  with  immortality,  but  will 
send  the  unjust,  m  eternal  sensibility  —  Iv  aia&y\GEt 
aibivva — with  wicked  demons,  into  eternal  fire." 
(c.  25.)  Once  more  we  read  as  follows:  "In 
like  manner,  Plato  said  that  Eadamanthus  and 
Minos  would  punish  the  unjust  who  come  to 
them,  and  we  say  the  same  will  be  inflicted  upon 
them,  but  by  Christ,  and  while  they  exist  in  the 
same  bodies  with  their  souls;  moreover  they 
shall  suffer  eternal  punishment,  but  not  punish- 
ment for  the  period  of  a  tho^isand  years  only,  as 
he  taught."  (c.  8.)     We  add  a  very  interesting 


136         STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

passage  from  his  "  Exhortation  to  the  Greeks  " : 
"  Hence  as  nothing  true  concerning  religion  can 
be  learned  from  your  teachers,  who  offer  to  you 
an  ample  disclosure  of  their  ignorance  by  their 
opposition  one  to  another,  I  think  it  suitable  to 
revert  to  our  ancestors,  who,  indeed,  preceded 
by  far  the  times  of  your  teachers,  and  who 
taught  us  nothing  from  their  own  imagination  ; 
neither  did  they  contend  with  one  another,  nor 
attempt  to  overthrow  the  doctrines  of  one  an- 
other ;  but  without  envy  or  dissension  they 
received  the  [true]  knowledge  from  God,  and 
taught  this  to  us.  For  it  is  impossible  for  men 
to  know  so  great  and  divine  things,  either  by 
means  of  nature  or  of  human  thought,  but  only 
by  the  gift,  which  then  descended  from  above  upon 
the  holy  men  who  needed  neither  the  art  of 
words,  nor  of  speaking  anything  captiously  or 
enviously,  but  who  offered  themselves  in  piu-ity 
to  the  energy  of  the  divine  spirit,  that  this 
divine  plectrum,  descending  from  heaven,  and 
using  the  just  men  as  a  musical  instrument  — 
harp  or  lyre — might  reveal  the  knowledge  of 
divine  and  heavenly  things  to  us.  Hence  for 
this  reason  they  taught  us,  consistently  and  har- 
moniously with  one  another,  as  if  from  one  voice 
and  one  tongue,  respecting  God  and  the  creation 


FURTHER   OBJECTIOXS    COXSIDERED.         137 

of  the  world;  and  the  forming  of  man,  and  the 
immortality  of  the  human  soul^  and  the  judg- 
ment which  is  to  be  after  this  life,  and  all  things 
which  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  know,  offering  to 
us  this  divine  teaching  in  manifold  places  and 
times."  (c.  8.)  Mr.  Hudson  refers  to  the  above, 
in  proof,  it  would  seem,  of  the  following  state- 
ment :  "  In  the  same  treatise  he  names  as  truths 
held  in  common,  by  the  philosophers  and  the 
Christians,  the  doctrines  of  the  divine  origin  of 
the  world  and  creation  of  man,  of  the  soul's 
immortality,  and  of  judgment  after  this  life."  ^ 

Turning  now  to  the  treatise  of  Athenagoras 
upon  the  resurrection, ^  we  find  these  words: 
"Let  no  man  be  surprised  if  we  call  the  life 
which  is  dissevered  by  death  and  corruption  a 
continual  existence,  bearing  in  mind  the  fact  that 
the  meaning  of  this  appellation  is  not  uniform, 
the  measure  of  continuance  is  not  unfiorm,  be- 
cause those  which  continue  in  being  have  not 
one  nature.  For  if  each  one  of  those  which 
continue  to  be  has  this  continued  being  accord- 
ing to  its  own  peculiar  nature,  one  cannot  find 

1  "Future  Life,"  p.  313.  Compare  Semisch's  "Justin  MartjT," 
vol.  II.  p.  262  sq.,  and  p.  304  sq.,  liyland's  translation,  for  a  thorough 
discussion  of  Justin's  belief ;  also  "  Some  Account  of  the  Life  and 
"Writings  of  Justin  Martyn:  By  John  Bishop  of  Lincoln,"  p.  102  sq. 

2  Written  about  A.D.  175. 

12-^ 


138  STATE   OF    THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

the  same  sort  of  continuance  among  those  who 
are  purely  incorruptible  and  immortal,  because 
the  natures  of  the  more  excellent  are  not  made 
equal  with  those  which  are  inferior;  neither  is 
it  proper  to  seek  in  man  that  even  and  un- 
changeable continuance  of  being;  for  wlnlc  the 
higher  natures  were  made  from  the  first  im- 
mortal, and  continue  without  death  by  the  will 
of  their  Maker,  men  have  in  respect  to  the  soul 
unchangeable  being  or  continuity  from  birth :  but 
in  respect  to  the  body,  they  receive  immortality 
by  means  of  change  —  a  change  required  by  the 
nature  of  the  resurrection ;  and,  looking  to  this, 
we  not  only  await  the  dissolution  of  tlie  body  as 
following  this  life,  w^hich  is  subject  to  want  and 
deca}',  but  also  after  this  we  hope  for  continued 
being  with  immortality."  (c.  16.)  This  passage 
evidently  recognizes  an  original  and  important 
difference  between  the  soul  of  man  and  his  body, 
placing  the  former  in  a  different  relation  to  end- 
less life  from  the  latter.  In  his  Plea  for  Chris- 
tians he  uses  these  words  :  "  We  are  convinced 
that,  having  departed  from  this  life,  we  shall  live 
another  life  better  than  the  present,  and  heav- 
enly, not  earthly,  (as  we  shall  remain  near  God, 
and  with  God,  stable  and  unsuffering  in  soul,  not 
as  fleshly  beings,  though  we  may  have  flesh,  but 


FURTHER    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED.        139 

as  celestial  spirit,)  or,  if  we  fall  with  the  rest, 
a  worse  life  even  by  means  of  fire  ]  for  God  did 
not  create  us  like  sheep  and  oxen,  a  subsidiary 
work,  that  we  should  perish  and  vanish  away; 
and  hence  we  are  not  likely  to  be  willfully  bad, 
nor  to  deliver  ourselves  up  to  the  great  judge 
to  be  punished."  (c.  31.)  '^In  the  system  of 
Athenagoras,"  says  Mr.  Hudson,  "the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  is  certainly  of  nature."  ^ 
About  the  same  time  Theophilus  wrote  to 
Autolychus,  an  educated  pagan,  in  defence  of 
Christianity,  and  urged  him  to  "  believe  God  and 
submit  to  him,  lest,"  he  says,  "  if  thou  now  dis- 
believest,  thou  shalt  then  be  convinced,  being 
vexed  in  eternal  punishments  ;  which  punish- 
ments, having  been  predicted  by  the  prophets, 
were  stolen  by  the  later  poets  and  philosophers 
from  the  Holy  Scriptures  for  the  purpose  of  se- 
curing credit  to  their  own  opinions.  ...  Do 
thou,  also,  if  it  please  thee,  read  studiously  the 
prophetic  Scriptures,  and  they  will  more  clearly 
direct  thee  how  to  flee  from  the  eternal  punish- 
ments, and  to  secure  the  eternal  benefits  of 
God."  (L.  I.  c.  14.)  Again,  he  says,  "The  law 
and  the  prophets  taught  men  to  refrain  from 

1"  Future  Life,"  p.  321. 


140  STATE    OP    THE   IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

godless  idolatry,  and  adiiltcrj;  and  murder,  for- 
nication, theft,  avarice,  perjury,  wrath,  and  all 
lasciviousness  and  impurity ;  and  that  all  things 
whatsoever  a  man  would  not  have  done  to  him- 
self he  should  not  do  to  another ;  and  that  who- 
ever is  thus  just  in  action  shall  escape  the  eter- 
nal punishments,  and  be  thought  worthy  of  the 
eternal  life  with  God."  (L.  11.  c.  34.)  It 
should  be  added,  that,  while  Theophilus  appears 
to  have  believed  in  the  endless  existence  of  all 
men,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  denied  the  natural 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  affirmed  that  God 
only  is  immortal  per  se.  Tatian,  who  wrote  his 
"  Address  to  the  Greeks  "  near  the  close  of  the 
second  century,  was  the  first,  we  believe,  to 
teach  the  doctrine  of  the  final  extinction  of  the 
wicked.  And  there  is  far  more  reason  to  con- 
sider this  doctrine  an  independent  speculation 
of  his  own,  than  to  suppose  it  derived  by  him 
from  the  word  of  God.  For  although  he  was, 
for  a  time,  the  friend  and  admirer  of  Justin 
Martyr,  he  returned  to  the  east,  when  the  latter 
had  suffered  death  for  his  loyalty  to  Christ,  and 
tlicre  founded  a  sect  of  Gnostics.  His  opinions, 
therefore,  cannot  be  attributed  indiscriminately 
to  the  church  of  that  period.  It  must  further 
be  remarked,  that  in  cxpoundhig  the  Scriptures 


FURTHER   OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED.        141 

he  does  not  exhibit  even  that  moderate  degree 
of  care  and  sobriety  which  is  discoverable  m  the 
other  apologists  of  his  day. 

We  may  now  close  this  survey  by  stating  the 
result  of  our  examination  in  these  words  :  The 
records  of  the  primitive  church,  prior  to  A.  D.  200, 
afford  no  evidence  that  a  belief  in  the  endless  exist- 
ence of  the  sold  was  hrought  over  from  pagan  phi- 
losophy into  the  creed  of  the  church,  and  no  evi- 
dence that  the  early  teachers  and  defenders  of 
Christianity  understood  the  impenitent  to  be 
threatened  by  the  word  of  God  with  extinction 
of  conscious  being  as  the  penalty  of  sin  here- 
after. As  to  the  later  Christian  apologists  and 
teachers,  Clement,  Origen,  Tertullian,  and  Hip- 
polytus  evidently  regard  the  souls  of  men  as 
destined  to  exist  forever ;  and  we  can  but  ques- 
tion the  interpretation  of  certain  passages  in  the 
work  of  IrenaBus  by  which  they  are  said  to 
teach  a  different  belief.^ 

1  On  this  point  see  Duncker's  desh.  Irenseus  Chkistologie,  p.  90 
seq.,  and  Massueti  Dissertatio  III.  Irenaji  Opera,  vol.  II.  p.  333  sq., 
Stieren's  edition. 


SECTION    YII. 

RATIOXAL  OBJECTIONS. 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.  —  OBJECTION  (1)  FROM  THE  OMNIPOTENCE  OP 
GOD. —  REPLY. —  (2)  FROM  THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS  OF  GOD. — REPLY.  —  (3) 
FROM   THE   BENEVOLENCE   OF   GOD.  —  REPLY.  —  CONCLUSION. 

We  have  now  examined  briefly  the  leading 
objections  drawn  from  the  word  of  God  to  our 
view  of  the  state  of  the  impenitent  dead.  These 
objections  have  been  found  inconclusive.  They 
are  not  of  such  a  nature  as  to  countervail  a 
single  clear  affirmation  of  endless  personal  ex- 
istence on  the  part  of  the  wicked. 

Here,  then,  it  might  be  well  to  pause ;  for  the 
Scriptures  are  our  sole  authority  on  this  subject. 
As  their  testimony  leads,  or  even  leans,  our  be- 
lief must  humbly  follow.  But  many  persons 
choose  to  begin  their  study  of  this  great  theme 
at  the  very  point  wliere  we  are  inclined  to  finish. 
Having  little  reverence  for  the  word  of  God, 
they  sometimes  call  in  question  its  infallibility, 
and  often  treat  its  language  with  less  deference 


RATIONAL   OBJECTIONS.  143 

than  is  paid  to  their  own  speculative  reason. 
Whatever  may  be  their  theory  of  inspiration, 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  interpret  the  sacred 
oracles  into  harniony  with  their  limited  and  in- 
terested judgment,  to  adjust,  by  a  never-ending 
process,  revealed  theology  to  their  floating  ideas 
of  natural  theology.  Hence,  as  might  well  be 
expected  in  such  a  case,  after  insisting  upon  the 
unreasonahleness  of  the  doctrine  of  eternal  misery 
as  the  wages  of  sin,  they  make  haste  to  repudi- 
ate this  doctrine,  and  to  extract  from  the  living 
word  some  justification  of  their  course.  We 
propose,  therefore,  to  review  some  of  the  argu- 
ments which  are  said  to  prove  the  doctrine  of 
this  essay  to  be  unreasonahle. 

Still,  we  rest  the  truth  of  our  doctrine,  be  it 
observed,  upon  the  testimony  of  divine  revela- 
tion, and  cannot  therefore  be  required  to  show 
that  it  is  a  doctrine  of  natural  theology,  taught 
by  unaided  human  reason.  If  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  sacred  record,  all  the  reasons  —  and  they 
are  unanswerable  —  which  prove  that  record  to 
be  an  expression  of  God's  will,  combine  to  make 
a  belief  in  this  doctrine  reasonable.  Whoever, 
therefore,  would  overthrow  it  by  the  weapons  of 
human  philosophy,  and  thus  prejudge  or  preclude 
the   testimony  of  revelation,  must  take   upon 


144         STATE    OP   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

himself  the  onus  j)rohnndiy  and  prove  it  to  be  pos- 
itively unreasonable.  He  must  show  that  the 
human  mind  may  be  relied  upon  in  the  premises, 
and  that,  while  rightly  estimating  the  guilt  of 
sin  as  well  as  the  supposed  doom  of  the  sinner, 
it  pronounces  the  latter  to  be  unjust  or  un- 
merciful. 

And  here  let  the  difficulty  of  this  task  be 
noted.  The  human  mind,  has  it  any  power  to 
apprehend  the  quantitative  relations  of  sin  and 
punishment?  Is  it  able  in  any  case  to  deter- 
mine by  itself  the  exact  penalty,  whether  of  loss 
or  of  pain,  which  is  due  to  a  responsible  being 
for  a  given  violation  of  right?  Neither  the 
logical  understanding  nor  the  power  of  rational 
insight  in  man  is  capable,  it  seems  to  us,  of  doing 
this  —  of  adjusting  retribution  to  moral  wrong. 
Not  even  conscience  has  in  itself,  apart  from  the 
spirit  of  God,  any  measure  or  standard  by  which 
it  can  ascertain  the  quantum  of  penalty  which 
is  justly  annexed  to  each  different  degree  of 
human  sinfulness.  This,  perhaps,  is  a  kind  of 
knowledge  which  God  has  reserved  in  his  own 
power,  giving  to  us  facts  without  philosophy,  and 
thus  treating  us  for  the  present  as  little  children, 
who  arc  unable  to  fathom  the  deepest  questions 
of  his  moral  government.     Tui'ning  now  to  the 


KATIONAL   OBJECTIONS.  145 

actual  judgment  of  mankind;  there  are  some,  it 
appears,  who  exclude  the  very  notion  of  punish- 
ment from  the  divine  administration,  declaring 
that  all  suffering  is  preventive  or  reformatory. 
There  are  others  who  admit  the  reality  of  penal 
retribution,  but  restrict  it  to  the  loss  of  possible 
good,  whether  this  good  be  defined  as  happiness 
or  as  conscious  being  itself;  and  there  are  others 
—  hitherto  the  vast  majority  of  mankind — who 
believe  in  punishment  for  sin,  both  positive  and 
negative,  in  time  and  in  eternity.  Now,  what- 
ever may  be  the  merit  of  either,  or  of  all  these 
opinions,  the  simple  naming  of  them  brings  up 
at  once  the  query,  whether  human  reason  can  be 
trusted  in  the  premises,  and  whether  an  argu- 
ment founded  upon  it  must  not  be,  at  least,  ex- 
ceedingly precarious. 

But,  leaving  this  thought,  let  us  take  up  the 
arguments  which  are  said  to  prove  our  belief 
unreasonable.     And, — 

I.  The  doctrine  of  eternal  misery  as  the  pen- 
alty of  sin  is  irreconcilable  with  the  doctrine 
of  God's  omnipotence;  for  it  affirms  the  endless 
existence  of  what  is  hostile  to  God  and  abhorred 
by  him.  The  same  objection,  it  has  often  been 
replied,  may  be  urged  against  the  existence  of 
moral  evil  at  all ;  for  it  is  diametrically  opposed 
13 


146         STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

to  the  moral  nature  of  God,  whether  it  exist  for 
a  day  or  forever.  Yet  moral  evil  is  permitted ; 
and  once  actual  in  the  universe,  it  is  ever  actual 
to  him  who  is  without  succession,  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  with  whom  "  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day  as 
a  thousand  years."  ^ 

II.  Tlie  doctrine  of  eternal  misery,  as  the 
penalty  of  sin,  is  irreconcilable  with  the  right- 
eousness of  God ;  for  the  penalty  is  altogether  too 
great  for  the  offence.  This  is  true,  it  is  alleged, 
whether  we  consider  the  sinner's  probation  as 
very  brief,  his  knowledge  as  very  limited,  or  his 
condition  as  very  unfavorable.  Let  us  examine, 
one  by  one,  the  grounds  of  this  objection. 

The  sinner's  probation,  we  are  reminded,  is 
very  brief,  as  if  God  were  in  haste  to  fix  his  doom. 
There  is  no  conceivable  proportion  between  the 
longest  life  on  earth  and  endless  existence  here- 
after ;  but  justice  requires  that  the  duration  of 
punishment  be  proportioned  in  every  case  to  that 
of  the  offence.  Hence  eternal  woe  cannot  be 
the  wages  of  sin  committed  in  the  present  life. 
The  righteousness  of  God  forbids  it. 

1  See  Erbkam's  elaborate  article  "Uber  d.  Lehrc  v.  d.  ewigen 
bcrdamniss,"  in  the  Studien  ii.  Kritikcn,  1838,  p.  38-4  sq. ;  alco  T. 
M.  Post,  in  the  New  Englander,  1856,  p.  115  sq. 


EATIONAL   OBJECTIONS.  147 

In  reply  to  the  objection  thus  stated,  we  re- 
mark ( 1 ),  that  it  mistakes  the  length  of  a  sin- 
ner's probation  for  the  degree  of  his  guilt;  in 
other  words,  it  assumes  that  a  great  moral  wrong 
cannot  be  perpetrated  in  a  short  time ;  but  this 
is  a  palpable  error.  In  judging  men  here,  we 
do  not  measure  the  guilt  of  an  act  by  the  time 
consumed  in  its  performance,  nor  do  we  adjust 
the  penalty  to  that  time.  Crimes  of  the  greatest 
malignity,  and  meriting  the  severest  retribution, 
may  be  committed  in  a  moment.  The  element 
of  time  is  taken  into  account,  simply  because  it 
may  serve  to  reveal  the  deliberate  malice  of  the 
offender.  We  also  remark  (2),  that  the  omni- 
science of  God  must  be  borne  in  mind  when  we 
contrast  the  sinner's  probation  with  his  final 
doom.  For  this  attribute  of  Jehovah  permits 
us  to  assume  that  the  determinate  character  of 
an  individual  is  just  as  fully  revealed  to  him  by 
a  brief  period  of  trial  as  by  a  longer  one.  What 
advantage  to  justice,  so  far  as  the  sinner  is  con- 
cerned, will  there  be  gained  by  prolonging  the 
trial?  What  principle  of  equity  requires  the 
Supreme  Ruler  to  extend  indefinitely  the  proba- 
tion of  one  who  has  shown  himself  to  be  fully 
set  upon  evil,  and  utterly  opposed  to  holiness  ? 

We  remark  (3),  that  serious  men  of  every 


l48         STATE   OP   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

creed  accept  the  doctrine  of  eternal  retribution 
for  temporal  sin.  Those  who  believe  in  the  final 
salvation  of  all  men  admit  that  there  are  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  happiness  in  the  life  to  come, 
and  maintain  tliat  wickedness  here  diminishes 
happiness  there.  This  diminution  is  ctcr?ial  loss 
for  temporal  sin,  eternal  detriment  for  evil-doing 
in  time.  The  same  may  also  be  said  of  those 
who  believe  in  the  personal  extinction  of  the 
wicked  hereafter.  For  the  sin  of  a  day,  they 
are  punished  with  the  loss  of  all  good  forever 
and  ever.  And,  if  this  may  be  consistent  with 
perfect  righteousness,  who  shall  say  that  what 
is  even  more  to  be  dreaded,  eternal  misery, 
must  be  inconsistent  with  righteousness  ?  Is  not 
the  principle  and  the  difficulty  the  same  in  both 
cases  ? 

Again,  the  sinner's  knowledge  is  said  to  be 
very  limited.  He  is  unable  to  form  any  adequate 
conception  of  eternal  blessedness  or  misery,  and 
knows  but  imperfectly  the  will  of  God.  In  a 
word,  he  appreciates  neither  the  penalty  nor  the 
claims  of  the  "  divine  "  law  as  thus  explained ; 
and,  tlicrcforc,  it  would  be  unjust  to  inflict  so 
heavy  a  punishment  upon  liim. 

To  this  form  of  the  objection  we  reply:  (1) 
That  the   righteousness  of  a  law,  including  its 


RATIONAL   OBJECTIONS.  149 

penalty,  does  not  depend  upon  the  penaltifs  being 
known  and  appreciated  beforehand.  For  if  it 
does,  then  obviously  a  man  is  gJiiltij,  not  because 
he  does  wrong,  but  because  he  braves  suffering  — 
not  in  proportion  to  his  disregard  of  a  just  require- 
ment, but  in  proportion  to  his  disregard  of  self — 
not  as  one  who  tramples  on  right,  and  does  that 
which,  being  in  itself  wrong,  deserves  punishment, 
but  as  one  who  ignores  danger,  and  exposes  him- 
self to  threatened  misery ;  in  a  word,  he  is  guilty j 
if  we  may  thus  abuse  language,  not  because  he  is 
sinfid,  but  because  he  is  unwise.  A  previous 
knowledge  of  penalties  may  obviously  tend  to 
prevent  crime ;  but  it  neither  makes  nor  enhances 
the  criminality  of  an  act,  except,  perhaps,  in  so 
far  as  it  enlightens  the  moral  judgment  of  the 
perpetrator.  It  is  no  excuse  for  undue  severity 
on  the  part  of  a  ruler,  to  say,  that  his  subjects 
were  distinctly  forewarned  of  it;  for  many  a 
tyrant  has  pre-announced  the  unjust  and  inhuman 
tortures  which  would  follow  the  slightest  disre- 
gard of  his  will.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  an 
ignorance  of  the  penalties  to  be  inflicted  for  any 
given  crime  the  least  excuse  to  the  criminal  for 
his  act  of  sin.  Theft  is  no  less  wrong  in  a 
country  where  it  is  punished  with  imprisonment 
than  in  one  where  it  is  punished  with  death.  If, 
13^ 


150         STATE   OF   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

then,  it  would  be  just  in  God  to  sentence  un- 
believers to  eternal  misery,  provided  they  had 
continued  such  with  a  full  knowledge  and  appre- 
ciation of  their  coming  doom,  it  is  equally  just 
for  him  to  pronounce  and  execute  that  sentence, 
although  they  have  no  adequate  conception  of 
the  doom  beforehand.  And  let  it  also  be  noted 
that  neither  pain  nor  deprivation  can  be  truly 
understood  or  appreciated  except  by  experience. 
Tell  a  man,  for  instance,  of  the  headache  or 
toothache,  of  lingering  torture  or  solitary  con- 
finement, who  has  never  experienced  that  of 
which  you  speak,  and  the  language  employed, 
however  suitable  in  itself,  will  be  to  him  like 
the  sounding  brass  or  tinkling  cymbal;  it  will 
have  no  true  and  definite  meaning.  Hence,  were 
it  necessary  to  the  justice  of  a  punishment  that 
it  should  be  really  comprehended  beforehand, 
there  could  be  no  just  punishments  in  any  ad- 
ministration, human  or  divine. 

And  (2),  as  to  a  knowledge  of  the  divhic  law, 
or  the  rule  of  duty,  we  maintain  that  it  is  within 
the  reach  of  every  man,  not  perhaps  in  all  its 
breadth  and  spirituality,  but  so  far  forth  as  he 
is  held  responsible  for  its  violation.  Men  every- 
where do  what  they  know  to  be  wrong.  If  any 
portion  of  the  divine  will  is  disclosed  to  them, 


EATIONAL  OBJECTIONS.  151 

that  portion  they  disregard  and  trample  in  the 
dust.  If,  then,  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  inten- 
sity of  woe  hereafter  is  to  be  adjusted  to  the 
guilt  of  the  sinner  as  measured  by  his  disposi- 
tion, and  by  his  means  of  knowledge,  and  that 
every  man  does  know  something  of  God's  will 
which  he  deliberately  contemns,  the  force  of 
this  objection  seems  to  be  completely  destroyed. 
But  we  are  also,  in  this  connection,  to  bear  in 
mind  the  omniscience  of  God.  He  knows  the 
hearts  of  all,  and  the  exact  amount  of  light 
offered  to  such  as  have  not  the  gospel.  And,  at 
the  same  time,  we  are  to  remember  the  words  of 
truth :  he  "  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least 
is  faithful  also  in  much ;  and  he  that  is  unjust  in 
the  least  is  unjust  also  in  much ; ''  ^  words  which 
go  far  to  answer  some  of  the  darkest  insinuations 
which  are  made  against  the  government  of  God. 
Once  more  :  The  sinner's  condition  while  on 
trial  is  very  unfavorable ;  he  is  predisposed  to 
evil  from  the  first ;  he  does  wrong  as  surely  as 
he  has  an  opportunity  to  do  wrong.  It  cannot, 
then,  we  are  told,  be  right  to  inflict  so  dreadful 
a  penalty  for  transgression  upon  one  whose  con- 
dition is  so  unfavorable  to  virtue. 

1  Luke  xvi.  10. 


152  STATE   OP   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

A  great  difi&culty,  -^c  are  free  to  confess,  is 
brought  forward  in  tins  objection ;  but,  however 
great  it  may  be,  there  is  no  more  reason  why  it 
should  be  urged  against  the  doctrine  of  this 
essay  than  against  any  doctrine  which  makes  man 
responsible  for  his  moral  conduct.  For  the  diffi- 
culty consists,  not  in  the  estimate  which  is  put 
on  the  guilt  of  sin,  but  in  holding  one  to  be 
really  and  truly  responsible  for  it  notwithstand- 
ing the  bias  of  a  fallen  nature.  Whatever  moral 
evil  there  is  in  our  race  must  be  chargeable 
either  to  mankind  or  to  God ;  for  to  attempt  a 
division  of  the  responsibility  is  absurd.  But  if 
we  admit  that  men,  rather  than  God,  must  be 
held  responsible  for  their  unrighteousness,  the  ob- 
jection under  notice  loses  all  its  weight.  There 
may  be  still  in  the  case  a  great  difficulty  to  finite 
reason  —  a  mystery  altogether  above  our  com- 
prehension—  but  human  responsibility  for  sin, 
and,  indeed,  for  all  the  sin  in  man,  is,  neverthe. 
less,  a  fact  attested  by  conscience,  and  affirmed 
by  the  word  of  God — in  fact  not  to  be  evaded 
nor  set  aside  without,  at  the  same  time,  under- 
mining the  foundations  of  all  religion  and  mo- 
rality. While,  then,  conscience,  revelation,  and 
the  common  sense  of  mankind  hold  the  wronc:- 
doer  to  be  guilty  for  his  deed  notwithstanding  a 


EATIONAL   OBJECTIONS.  153 

native  bias  to  evil,  neither  this  sinful  proclivity, 
nor  any  other  feature  of  his  condition  in  the 
present  life,  can  be  urged  against  the  justice  of 
punishing  him  for  unrighteousness,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  intrinsic  ill-desert  of  the  latter. 

Finally,  the  doctrine  of  eternal  misery  as  the 
punishment  of  sin  is  irreconcilable  with  the 
doctrine  of  God^s  benevolence  ;  for  infinite  benev- 
olence, we  are  assured,  would  have  made  the 
probation  of  man  longer,  his  knowledge  greater, 
and  his  moral  nature  better,  if  the  period  of 
trial  was  to  be  followed  in  so  many  instances 
by  so  awful  a  doom. 

As  to  the  length  of  man's  probation,  we  reply, 
it  is  not  too  short  for  the  exercise  of  repentance 
and  faith;  nor  is  there  any  probability  that 
greater  numbers  would  be  led  to  repentance 
were  the  probation  of  man  a  thousand  years 
instead  of  threescore  and  ten.  Indeed,  there 
is  ample  ground  for  believing  that  the  brevity 
of  his  trial  is  a  merciful  arrangement.  Before 
the  lives  of  men  were  shortened,  their  wicked- 
ness became  intolerable  in  the  earth ;  and  such, 
we  believe,  is  human  nature,  that  men  would  be 
less  likely  than  they  now  are  to  turn  from  sin, 
were  the  period  of  hope  and  grace  indefinitely 
or  even  greatly  extended. 


154  STATE    OF   THE    IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

In  responding  to  the  second  specification,  we 
ask  for  proof  that  any  increase  of  knowledge 
would  of  itself  have  the  effect  of  leading  those 
men  who  now  disregard  the  will  of  God  to  obey 
that  will.  The  ways  of  Providence,  it  may  be, 
are  so  carefully  directed  and  so  perfect,  that  no 
man  has  ever  continued  in  unbelief  to  the  end 
of  life,  who  would  have  turned  to  Christ  had 
simply  his  knowledge  of  divine  truth  been 
greater.  When  it  is  proved  that  some  indi- 
vidual of  our  race  has  sought  with  an  honest 
mind,  but  in  vain,  for  the  truth,  or  has  had  a 
disposition  of  heart  which  truth  could  mould, 
Sim  virtiite,  into  the  likeness  of  Christ,  then  this 
objection  may  be  pronounced  valid,  but  not  be- 
fore ;  and  its  cogency  would  depend,  even  then, 
upon  the  assumption  that  God  is  controlled  by 
the  principle  of  benevolence  solehj,  having  no 
regard  to  right  and  justice,  except  as  means  to 
an  end. 

To  the  third  specification  we  reply,  that  the 
infinite  benevolence  of  God  does  not  prevent 
him  from  holding  men  responsible  in  spite  of 
their  depraved  nature  for  sinful  conduct,  nor 
from  punishing  them  for  it  in  this  life.  Indi- 
viduals and  nations  are  not  unfrequently  de- 
stroyed for  their  crimes.     But  if  punishment  — 


HATIOXAL    OBJECTION'S.  155 

if  rctrilnitioii,  in  tlic  proper  sense  of  these  terms, 
is  not  in  itself  inconsistent  with  supreme  benev- 
olence, it  is  obviously  impossible  for  us  to  say 
that  retribution,  2ijp  to  the  full  demands  of  justice, 
is  so.  He  only  who  knows  all  things  can  deter- 
mine whether  any  relaxation  of  the  penalty  due  to 
sin  will  promote  the  highest  good  of  his  rational 
subjects.  And  here  it  may  be  noted,  that  none 
are  more  disposed  to  urge  the  plea  of  insanity 
in  behalf  of  the  murderer,  than  men  who  object 
to  the  doctrine  of  divine  retribution  in  a  future 
life.  But,  by  urging  this  plea,  they  do  tacitly 
admit  the  justice  and  fitness  of  penal  retribu- 
tion, were  there  no  such  plea  to  be  offered.  Nor 
can  the  significance  of  this  admission  be  de- 
stroyed without  going  still  further,  and  asserting, 
that,  just  so  far  as  one  sins,  is  there  evidence  of 
his  insanity  and  moral  irresponsibility — a  state- 
ment which  virtually  denies  the  existence  of 
moral  character  and  government,  gives  the  lie 
direct  to  conscience,  and  darkens  fearfully  the 
prospect  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave.  ^ 

There  are,  however,  it  is  well  known,  many 
persons  to  whom  the  benevolence  of  God  seems 
to  be  inconsistent  with  penal  retribution  in  his 

1  See  a  fuller  discussion  of  several  topics  here  alluded  to  in  the 
Chr.  RcA'.,  October,  1851,  by  the  writer  of  these  pages. 


156  STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

government;  and  who  tliereforc  look  upon  all 
suffering  as  either  preventive,  reformatory,  or 
disciplinary,  and  boldly  reject  the  doctrine  of  any 
limit  to  probation.  But,  in  denying  there  is  any 
limit  to  probation,  they  overlook,  avc  arc  com- 
pelled to  think,  the  analogy  of  God's  government 
in  the  present  life.  For  the  laws  of  our  bodily 
organization  may  be  violated  to  a  certain  extent, 
and  for  a  limited  time,  without  permanent  injury. 
There  is  a  recuperative  force  in  the  human  sys- 
tem, which,  up  to  a  certain  point,  repairs  the 
injury  ;  but  beyond  that  point  there  is  no  re- 
covery except  by  miracle,  and  the  bodily  pro- 
bation, so  to  speak;  terminates.  So,  also,  with 
character.  Actions  have  been  performed  so 
base  and  malignant,  especially  when  repeated 
with  deliberate  purpose,  as  to  destroy  beyond 
remedy  our  confidence  in  the  perpetrator. 
Hence,  the  course  of  events  in  this  life  clearly 
suggests  the  doctrine  of  a  limit  to  moral  proba- 
tion. But  it  should  be  distinctly  noted,  that  this 
doctrine  does  not  represent  God  as  at  any  time 
rejecting  the  penitent ;  it  may  rather  be  said  to 
affirm  the  final  and  steadfast,  and  criminal  im- 
pcnitency  of  the  lost.  Not  so  much  outward 
bars  as  inward  passions  shut  tliem  out  of  heaven. 
The  limit  of  their  probation  may  be   marked 


RATIONAL   OBJECTIONS,  157 

simply  by  a  withdrawal  of  the  spirit  of  God, 
leaving  them  to  hasten  without  restraint  from 
the  fountain  of  all  good. 

Analogy,  then,  is  against  the  doctrine  of  un- 
limited probation;  and,  hence,  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  reason  also,  when  fairly  applied,  will 
be  found  against  it.  To  attempt  this  application 
may,  perhaps,  be  rash;  but  we  cannot  wholly 
forbear.  Let  us,  then,  taking  the  position  of 
our  opponents,  and  reasoning  from  the  single 
idea  of  benevolence,  assume  that  the  object  of 
penal  suffering  in  the  divine  economy  is  not  the 
satisfaction  of  righteousness  or  justice,  but  solely 
the  good  of  the  offender.  Let  us  further  assume 
that  suffering  does  not  act  as  a  mechanical  force 
—  as  purgatorial  fire,  consuming,  literally,  the 
dross  of  evil  passions,  and  leaving  the  spirit 
pure  —  but  rather  as  a  moral  agency  appealing 
to  the  soul,  and  urging  it  to  the  choice  and  pur- 
suit of  holiness.  And  let  us  finally  assume  two 
facts  which  rest  upon  a  wide  range  of  observa- 
tion, namely,  that  men  are  now  involved  in  sin, 
and  that  their  delight  in  moral  evil  is  ever  upon 
the  increase.  How,  then,  shall  God  in  his  be- 
nevolence arouse  the  slumbering  reason  of  man- 
kind, and  move  them  by  the  argument  from 
suffering  to  enter  the  path  of  endless  peace,  even 
14 


158         STATE   OF   THE   IMPENITENT   DEAD. 

at  the  cost  of  present  self-denial  and  conflict  ? 
Is  it  not  obvious  that  the  earliest  and  the 
strongest  consideration  possible  must  be  used  to 
persuade  them  ?  And  how  can  the  prospect  of 
misery  be  laid  before  the  self-seeking  spirit, 
and  made  so  eff'ectual  for  good,  as  by  affixing 
a  limit  to  probation,  and  making  the  result  end- 
less? In  what  other  way  can  so  strong,  and 
earnest,  and  benignant  an  appeal  be  made? 
How,  otherwise,  can  so  many  be  moved  to  re- 
nounce what  they  now  love,  and  seek  a  higher 
good?  And  how  else  can  God  exhibit  the 
strongest  possible  desire  to  persuade  all  men  to 
forsake  evil  and  become  forever  blessed  ?  Not 
assuredly  by  giving  to  mankind  a  longer,  but 
still  limited  probation ;  for,  as  we  have  before 
seen,  this  would  diminish  the  likelihood  of  re- 
pentance and  the  number  of  the  saved.  Nor, 
indeed,  by  making  probation  endless ;  for  in  that 
case  no  appeal  could  be  drawn  from  the  jirospect 
of  evil.  For  the  sinner  would  know  that  his 
present  act  of  sin  involves  but  the  attendant 
sufi'ering  or  loss,  nothing  in  the  future  really  de- 
pending upon  it.  And  as  he  loves  sin  now,  and 
chooses  it,  notwithstanding  the  attendant  evil, 
so  will  he,  moment  by  moment,  forever.  And 
this  surely  is  to  eliminate  from  the  idea  of 


RATIONAL   OBJECTIONS.  159 

punishment  not  merely  the  retrihutivey  but  also 
the  preventive,  element  as  well. 

The  objection  now  before  us,  it  will  be  seen 
by  all,  rests  upon  the  assumption  that  God  is 
simply  benevolent,  and  not  distinctively  right- 
eous ;  that  the  only  moral  attribute  which  he 
has  to  express  is  goodness,  and  the  sole  object 
of  his  government  to  secure  the  happiness  of 
his  creatures.  But  this  view  appears  to  us  irre- 
concilable with  the  phenomena  of  conscience, 
the  workings  of  Providence,  and  the  declarations 
of  Scripture.  These  all  testify  that  righteous- 
ness is  a  fundamental  attribute  of  the  Godhead ; 
that  he  loves  rectitude  for  its  own  sake,  its  es- 
sential beauty  and  excellence,  as  well  as  hap- 
piness for  its  own  sake ;  and,  hence,  that  it  will 
not  do  for  us  to  conclude,  from  the  attribute  of 
benevolence  alone,  what  will  be  the  process  of 
God's  moral  administration  hereafter.  There 
is,  we  think,  a  great  error  at  this  point  in  the 
reasonings  of  those  who  deny  the  endless  misery 
of  the  impenitent  dead. 

Here  we  pause.  It  has  been  shown  by  the 
certain  testimony  of  God's  word  that  the  im- 
penitent dead  are  to  be  forever  conscious 
and  miserable,  and  that  the  objections  to  this 
view,  whether  derived  professedly  from  divine 


160         STATE    OF    THE    IMPENITENT    DEAD. 

revelation  or  human  reason,  are  unworthy  of  con- 
fidence. How  momentous,  then,  are  the  interests 
which  depend  upon  human  conduct  in  the  present 
life!  Let  not  the  reader,  in  closing  this  little 
volume,  forget  that  good  and  evil,  life  and  death, 
are  placed  before  him  j  that  now  is  the  accepted 
time ;  now  is  the  day  of  salvation.  And  may 
God  lead  us  all  to  repentance,  for  his  Son's 
sake :    Amen. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS. 


For  the  information  of  those  who  may  desire  to  investi- 
gate still  further  the  subject  of  this  essay,  we  subjoin  a  list 
of  the  principal  works  consulted  in  its  preparatiorL 

COMMENTARIES. 

English. 

Alexander.  —  On  the  Psalms,  Isaiah,  and  Mark. 

Alford.  —  Greek  Testament.     (3  vols. ) 

Bush.  —  On  Genesis. 

Eadie.  —  On  Colossians. 

Ellicott.  —  On  the  Epistles.    (Galatians  to  Philemon.) 

Hackett.  —  On  the  Acts  (and  Philippians  in  MS.) 

Hengstenbekg.  —  On  the  Psalms  and  Revelation. 

Hodge.  —  On  Romans,  1  Corinthians,  and  Ephesians. 

Olshausen.  —  On  the  Gospels,  etc. 

KiPLEY.  —  On  the  Gospels  and  Romans. 

Stier.  —  On  the  Discourses  of  Jesus. 

Stuart.  —  On  Ecclesiastes  and  Revelation. 

14* 


162  LIST   OF    AUTHORS. 


German. 

Baumgartex.  —  On  the  Pentateuch. 

Bleek.  — On  Hebrews. 

Delitzsch.  —  On  Genesis. 

De  "Wette.  —  On  the  New  Testament. 

Ebrard.  —  On  Hebrews  and  Revelation. 

Harless.  —  On  Ephesians. 

LifcKE.  —  On  John. 

LiJNEMAXN.  —  On  Thessalonians. 

Meyer.  —  On  the  Gospels,  Romans,  and  Corintliians. 

RiJCKERT.  —  On  Romans  and  Corinthians. 

TiiOLUCK.  —  On  John  and  Romans. 

Latin. 

Bengel.  —  Gnomon  Novi  Testament]. 
Calvix.  —  In  Novum  Testamentum. 
Lampe.  — In  Johannem. 
Wettstein.  —  Novum  Testamentum. 


OTHER  WORKS. 
English. 

Abbott.  —  "Corner  Stone,"  ch.  v. 

Blain.  —  "Death  not  Life,"  etc. 

Calvin. —  "  Institutes,"  etc.,  B.  I.  c.  15;  B.  II.  c.  1,  2,  3. 

Edwards,  (The  Elder.)  — "Works  of,"  vol.  I.  p.  612  sq.;  voL 
IV.  p.  236  sq. 

Edwards,  (The  Yoimger. )  —  "  Works  of,"  vol.  IL  p.  302  sq. 
428  sq. 

DoBNEY.  —  "  Scripture  Doctrine  of  Future  Punishment." 

Fuller,  (Andrew.)  — "Works  of,"  vol.  II.  p.  292  sq. 

Ham.  —  "  Man  in  Death." 

Hudson.  —  "The  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life." 

JosEPnus.  —  "  Works  of,"  Antiq.  B.  XVIII.  c.  1;  Wars  B.  IL 
C.8. 


LIST    OF    AUTHORS.  163 

Kate,  (Bp.)  —  "  Writings  of  Justin  Martyr." 
Semisch.  —  "Justin  Martyr,"  vol.  II.  p.  262  sq. 
Stuart.  —  "Essays  on  Future  Punishment." 

German. 

Delitzsch.  —  Biblical  Psycholog}^ 

DuxCKEE.  —  The  Christology  of  Irenaeus. 

Ebrard.  —  Christian  Dogmatics,  vol.  I.  §  212  sq;  vol.  II.  §  576  sq. 

Hahn.  —  Dogmatics,  §  141  sq. 

Lutterbeck.  —  Doctrines  of  the  IST.  T.,  vol.  II. 

MiJLLER,  (J.)  —  Doctrine  of  Sin. 

Kedepenxing.  —  Life  and  Doctrine  of  Origen,  p.  358  sq. 

Thomasius.  —  Origen,  p.  187  sq. 

Usteri.  —  Doctrine  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

Latin. 

Aquinas,  (Thomas.) — Yol.  L,  Questions  89  and  97;  vol.  11., 
Question  85;  vol.  III.,  Question  164;  vol.  IV.,  Supt.  Questions  69, 
70,  97.    Ed.  Migre. 

Augustine.— De  Gen.  ad  Lit.  L.  VL  c.  25.  L.  XII.  c.  2,  5,  32, 
33,  34.  De  Civ.  Dei  L.  XIII.  c.  2.  L.  XXI.  passim,  and  De  Pec. 
et  Rem.    L.  I.  c.  2-6. 

Hermas.  —  Shepherd  of. 

Massuetus,  (Rev.)  — De  Irensei  Doctrina,  art.  YIII.  sq.;  vol.  U. 
p.  334.    Ed.  Stieren. 

ScHOTTGEN.  —  Horse  Hebraicse. 

Tacitus. — L.  V.  c.  5. 

Tertullian.— Apologeticus,  c.  48,  etc. 

Turretin.— Locus  V.  Quaest.  XII.  Locus  IX.  Qusest.  XV. 
Locus  XXX.  passim. 

Greek. 

Athena GOEAS.  —  De  Resurrectione. 
Diognetus.  —  Epistle  to. 

Ignatius.  —  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Ephesians. 
Iren^us.  —  "Works  of.    Ed.  Stieren. 


164  LIST   OF   AUTHORS. 

JusTiK,  (Mart}T.)  —  First  Apology. 
Origen.  —  Opera. 

Poly  CARP.  —  Epistle  and  MartjTdom  of. 
Tatiajj.  —  Address  to  the  Greeks. 

REVIEW  ARTICLES. 

BiBLlOTHECA   SaCRA. 

Griffin,  (Prof.)  — Vol.  XIII.  p.  153  sq. 
Hackett,  (Prof.)  — Vol.  XIII.  p.  609  sq. 
HiCKOK,  (Pres.)  — Vol.  XIII.  p.  48  sq. 

Christlvn  Review. 

GooDHTTE,  (Rev.  J.  A.)  — Vol.  XIX.  p.  434  sq. 
Philips,  (Rev.  D.  W.)  — Vol.  XX.  p.  381  sq. 
Sears,  (Pres.)  — Vol.  VI.  p.  528  sq. 

Methodist  Review. 

Anonymous.  —  Vol.  XXXIV.  p.  340  sq. 

New  Exglander. 

Post,  (T.  M.)— Vol.  XIV.  p.  115  sq.    161  sq. 

Studien  und  Kritiken. 

Erbkajm.  — 1838.    Vol.  I.  p.  384  sq. 
West.— 1858.    Vol.  I.  p. 


PASSAGES  OP  SCRIPTUEE  EEFEEEED 
TO  IN  THIS  ESSAY. 


Book- 

Genesis, 


Exodus, 


X.  28,     . 

«  xii.  33,  . 

"  xxii.  23. 

Numbers,  xvii.  27,. 

"  xxiU.  10,. 

Judges,  

1  Kings,  

u 

Job,  

Psalms,  


Chapter  and  Verse.  Page. 

. .  ii.  7,   14 

. .  ii.  17,  18,  28 

. .  iii.  19,  30 

..  iii.  22,  16,17,18 

101 

99 

97 

99 


, xvi.  30, 97 

ii.36,37, 101 

xix.  3,  97 

xiv.l2, 130 

vi.  6,   127 

«      xxx.  10, 128 

"      xlix.  14, 130 

«      Ixxxviii.  10, 12, 128 

«      cxv.  17, 128, 130 

"      cxlvi.4, 125 

Ecclesiastes, iv.  2, 36 

"     ix.5, 36 

"            ix.6, 126 


166  REFERENCES  TO   SCRIPTURE. 

Book.  Chapter  and  Terse.  Page. 

ECCLESIASTES, ix.  10, 125, 130 

"           xii.  7, 16 

Isaiah,          xxxviii.  18, 19, 128, 130 

Jeremiah,    li.,  57, 126 

Daniel,        xii.  2, 70, 71 

Zechariah, xii.  1, 14 

Matthew,     vii.  21, 22, 23, 73 

"              viii.  29, 120 

"              viii.  11, 12, 86 

"              vui.  22, 32,40 

{       "              X.28, 16,104 

:       «              X.  39, 108 

"              X.  42, 117 

"              xiii.  41,  42,  49, 50, 86 

!       «             xvii.3, 64 

"             xxi.  19, 44 

"              xxii.  31,  32, 66, 69 

«              XXV.  30, 87 

"              XXV.  41,  40, 84, 119 

Mark,           i.  24, 120 

*'                iii.  29, 44 

»*                ix.  9, 64 

«                ix.41, 117 

«                 Lx.  47,  48, 86 

xi.l4, 44 

Luke,            i.  54,  55,  44 

viii.31, 120 

"                 xii.4,5, 105 

«                 xiii.27,28, 87 

**                 XV.  4, 118 

«                  XV.  24,  32, 119,120 

*  x^^.  19,  31, 54, 55, 120 


EEFERENCES   TO   SCRIPTURE.  167 

Book.                                   Chapter  and  Verse.  Page. 

Luke,  xx.  38, 66 

»  xxiii.  43, 63 

John,  i-4, 51 

«  iii.  16, 38 

u  iv.14, 39,45 

u  V.  24, 39 

«*  V.28, 127 

»t  vi.  47,  53,  63, 41 

«  vi.51,58, 45 

u  viii.  35,  51,  52, 40,  45 

«  X.  28, 46 

««  xi.  25, 26, 42 

«  xii.  34;xiii.8;xiv.  16, 46 

«  xvii.  3, 47 

Acts,  vii.  59, 

«  xxiii.  8, 

Romans,  i-  20,  


16 

67 
112 


V.  12, 18 

vi.  2,  6, 11, 103 

vi.  4, 13, 49 

vi.l3,  37 

vii.  4;  viii.  13, 40 

xi.l5 37 


1  Corinthians, xiii.  12, 

«         XV.  18,  . 

«         XV.  44,  . 


14 

108 
21 


XV.  45,  46,   17 


«         XV.  53, 

2  COEINTHIANS, ii.  16, 

"  v.6-8 

«         vii.  10, 


20 
40 
58 
40 


xii.  2  sq., ^ 


168  EEFEREXCES   TO   SCRIPTUEB. 

Book.                                   Chapter  and  Verse.  Fa^. 

Galatiaks,  ii.  19, 40 

Ephesians,    ii.  1,  5, 34 

ii.  4, 6, 49 

V.  14, 37,  40 

PiiiLiPPLVXs,  i.  5,   112 

»           i.  21  -  24,  61 

CoLOSSiAxs, ii.  13, 34,  49, 100 

«            ii.  20, 103 

"            iii.  3,   103 

"            iii.  5,  40 

"            iii.  1,10, 49 

2  Thessaloniaxs, i.  9,  112 

1  TniOTHY,   V.  6, 35 

vi.  9,  131 

TmoTHY,      vi.  16,  23 

Hebrews,     i.  14,  23 

"              vi.  1, 33,40 

"              Lx.  14, 33 

«              xii.  23, 24 

2  Peter,        ii.  9, 121 

1  JoHX,          iii.  14,  40 

"                V.  16, 17,    40 

Revei^vtion, ii.  11, 79 

»           iii.  1, 33 

•'           vi.  9-11, 64 

"           Lx.  1,  2, 11;  xi.  7, 121 

"           xiv.  10,  11, 82 

"            XX.  1,  3;xvii.  8, 121 

"           XX.  6,  11-15, 79 

"           XX.  10, 78 

"           xxi.  8 ;  xxii.  15, 81 


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in  every  religious  family  in  the  country.  — /'/u7.  Ch.  Chronicle. 

LECTURES  ON  THE  LORD'S  PRAYER.    Third  ed.   85c. 

We  welcome  this  volume  as  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  literature  —  Ch.  WiL 

In  reading,  we  resolved  to  mark  the  passages  which  we  most  admired,  but  soon 
found  that  we  should  be  obliged  to  mark  nearly  all  of  them.  —  Ch.  Secretary. 

It  bears  in  every  page  the  mark  of  an  elegant  writer  and  an  accomplished  scholar, 
an  acute  rcasoner  and  a  cogent  moralist.  Some  passages  are  so  decidedly  elo<iuent 
that  we  instinctively  find  ourselves  looking  round  as  if  upon  an  audience,  and  ready 
to  join  them  with  audible  applause—  Ch.  Inquirer. 

We  are  reminded  of  the  old  English  writers,  whose  vigorous  thought,  and  gorgeous 
imagery,  and  varied  learning,  have  made  their  writings  an  inexhaustible  mine  for 
the  scholars  of  the  present  daj-. —  Ch.  Observer. 

Among  the  very  best  homiletical  efforts  of  the  age.  —  Ch.  Parlor  Mag. 

MISCELLANIES.     Improved  edition.    (Price  reduced.)    1,25. 

CS-  This  work,  which  has  been  heretofore  published  in  octavo  form  at  1,75  per  copy, 
is  published  by  the  present  proprietors  in  one  handsome  12mo  volume,  at  the  low 
price  of  1,25. 

Dr.  Williams  is  a  profound  scholar  and  a  brilliant  writer.  —  iV.  I".  Evangelist. 

The  natural  expression  of  a  mind  teeming  with  the  "spoils  of  time"  and  the  treas- 
ures of  study  in  almost  every  department  of  learning.  —  JV^.  Y.  Tribune. 

A  delightful  volume.  —  Methodift  Review. 

Glad  to  sec  this  volume.   We  wish  such  men  abounded  in  every  sect  —  Ch.  Reg. 

One  of  the  richest  volumes  that  has  been  given  to  the  public  for  years.  —  Lap.  Reg. 

Bb 


IMPORTANT   KEW   WORKS, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  :  Social  and  Individual.    Ey  Peter 

Batne,  a.  M.    12mo,  cloth.     $1.25. 

Contents.  Part  I.  —  Statement.  The  Individual  Life  ;  the  Social  Life.  Part 
n.  — ExpOSiTiox  AXD  Illustkation.  First  Principles  ;  Howard,  and  the  rise  of 
Philanthropy  ;  Wilberforce,  and  the  development  of  Philanthropy  ;  Budgett,  the 
Christian  Freeman  ;  the  social  problem  of  the  age,  and  one  or  two  hints  towards  its 
solution  ;  Modern  Doubt ;  John  Foster  ;  Thomas  Arnold  ;  Tliomas  Chahnera.  Part 
Xn.  — Outlook.    The  Positive  Philosophy  ;  Pantheistic  Spiritualism. 

Particular  attention  is  invited  to  this  work.  Its  recent  publication  in  Scotland  pro- 
iuced  a  great  sensation.  Hugh  Miller  made  it  the  subject  of  an  elaborate  review  in 
his  paper,  the  Edinburgh  "  Witness,"  and  gave  his  readers  to  understand  that  it  was 
an  extraordinary  work.  The  "  News  of  the  Churches,"  the  monthly  organ  of  the 
Scottish  Free  Church,  was  equally  emphatic  in  its  praise,  pronouncing  it  "the  relig- 
ious book  of  the  season."  Strikingly  original  in  plan  and  brilliant  in  execution,  it  far 
surpasses  the  expectations  raised  by  the  somewhat  familiar  title.  It  is,  in  truth,  a 
bold  onslaught  (and  the  first  of  the  kind)  upon  the  Pantheism  of  Carlyle,  Ficlite,  etc., 
by  an  ardent  admirer  of  Carlyle  ;  and  at  the  same  time  an  exhibition  of  the  Christian 
Life,  in  its  inner  principle,  and  as  illustrated  in  the  lives  of  Howard,  "Wilbei-force, 
Budgett,  Foster,  Chalmers,  etc.  The  brilliancy  and  vigor  of  the  author's  style  are 
remarkable. 

PATRIARCHY;  on,  The  Family:  its  Constittjtiox  and 
Probation.  By  Johx  Hakuis,  D.  D.,  Pre.*ident  of  "  New  College," 
London,  and  author  of  "The  Great  Teacher,"  "Mammon,"  etc. 
12mo,  cloth.     SI. 25. 

The  public  are  here  presented  with  a  work  on  a  subject  of  universal  interest,  by 
one  of  the  most  able  and  popular  living  authors.  It  is  a  work  that  should  lind  a  place 
in  every  family,  containing,  as  it  does,  a  profound  and  eloquent  exposition  of  the 
constitution,  laws,  and  history  of  the  Family,  as  well  as  much  important  instruction 
and  sound  advice,  touching  the  family,  family  government,  family  education,  etc., 
oi'the  present  time. 

This  is  the  third  and  last  of  a  series,  by  the  same  author,  entitled  "  Contributions 
t<)  Theological  Science."  The  plan  of  this  series  is  highly  original,  and  thus  far  has 
been  mest  successfully  executed.  Of  the  first  two  in  the  series,  "Pre- Adamite 
Earth,"  and  "  Man  Primeval,"  we  have  already  issued  four  and  five  editions,  and  the 
demand  still  continues.  The  immense  sale  of  all  Dr.  Harris's  works  attest  their  in- 
trinsic popularity. 

"  The  present  age  has  not  produced  his  superior  as  an  original,  stirring,  elegant 
writer."  — Philadelphia  Chp.istian  Chronicle. 

GOD    REVEALED    IN    NATURE    AND    IN    CHRIST; 
Including  a  Refutation  of  the  Development  Theory  contained  in  the 
"Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation."      By  the  author  of 
"The  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation."    12mo,  cloth.     S?1.25. 
The  author  of  that  remarkable  book,  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation," 
has  devoted  several  years  of  incessant  labor  to  the  preparation  of  this  work.    It  fur- 
nishes a  new,  and,  as  it  is  conceived,  a  conclusive  argument  against  the  "develop- 
ment theory  "  so  ingeniously  maintained  in  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of 
Creation."    As  this  author  does  not  publish  except  when  he  has  something  to  say, 
there  is  good  reason  to  anticipate  that  the  work  will  be  one  of  unusual  interest  and 
▼jlue.    His  former  Dook  has  met  with  the  most  signal  success  in  both  hemispheres, 
having  passed  through  numerous  editions  in  Enirland  and  Scotland,  and  been  trans- 
lated into  four  of  the  European  languages  besides-    /'  is^lso  about  to  be  translated 
into  the  Hindostanee  tongue.  (m) 


VALUABLE    WORKS 


TlIE  SUFFERING  SAVIOUR  ;  on,  iMEDiTAXioxs  on  thb 
Last  Days  ok  Ciiuist.  By  Fred.  ^Y.  Kuummacher,  D.D.,  Chap- 
lain to  the  King  of  I'russia,  and  author  of"  Elijah  the  Tishbite,"  etc. 
Translated  under  the  express  sanction  of  the  author,  by  Samukl 
Jackson.    12mo,  cloth.    61.25. 

The  style  of  the  author  need  not  be  described  to  those  who  have  read  his  '  Elijah  ; 
and  whoever  has  not  read  an  evangelical  book  of  our  own  time  that  has  passed  through 
many  editions  in  German,  English,  French,  Dutch,  Danish,  had  better  order  the 
CmxE.SE  edition,  which  has  recently  appeared-  •  •  •  Wc  like  the  book  — love 
it,  rather— for  the  vivid  perception  and  fervid  emotion  with  which  it  brings  us  to 
the  Suflcring  Saviour."  — New  Yohk  Ixi>ErENDEXT. 

"  Krummacher  is  himself  again  !  Till  the  present  work  appeared,  he  had  done 
nothing  equal  to  his  first  one,  '  Elijah,  the  Tishbite.'  In  the  present  he  comes  upon 
the  literary  firmament  in  his  old  tire  and  glory,  '  like  a  re-appearing  star.'  The  trans- 
lator has  done  his  work  admirably.  •  •  »  Much  of  tliC  narrative  is  given  with  thril- 
ling vividness,  and  pathos,  and  beaut}'.  Marking  as  we  proceeded,  several  passages 
for  quotation,  wc  found  them  in  the  end  so  numerous,  that  we  must  refer  the  reader 
to  the  work  itself."  — News  of  the  Chuecues  (Scottisu). 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  BAPTIST  PRINCIPLES  IN  THE 
LAST  lIUXDItED  YEARS.  By  T.  F.  Curtis,  Professor  of  Theol- 
ogy in  Levvisburg  University,  Pa.    12mo,  cloth.    §1.25. 

This  work  is  divided  into  three  books.  The  first  exhibits  the  progress  of  Baptist 
Principles,  now  concccded  in  theory  by  the  most  enlighted  of  other  denominations. 

The  second  presents  a  view  of  the  progress  of  principles  still  controverted. 

The  third  sets  forth  the  progress  of  principles  always  held  by  cvaugelical  Chris- 
tians, but  more  consistently  by  Baptists. 

It  is  a  work  that  invites  the  candid  consideration  of  all  denomitions.  The  aim  has 
been  to  draw  a  wide  distinction  between  parties  and  opinions.  Hence  the  object  of 
this  volume  is  not  to  exhibit  or  defend  the  Baptists,  but  their  principles." 

"  Tiie  principles  referred  to  are  such  as  these  :  Freedom  of  conscience  and  Sepa- 
ration of  Church  and  State  ;  a  Converted  Church  Membership  ;  Sacraments  inoper- 
ative without  Choice  and  Faith  ;  Belie\  crs  the  only  Scriptural  Subjects  of  Baptism  ; 
Immersion  always  the  Baptism  of  the  New  Testament ;  Infant  Baptism  Injurious; 
Open  Communion  Unwise  and  Injurious,  To  show  the  progress  of  these  principles, 
statistics  arc  given,  from  which  we  learn  that  in  ir'J2  there  was  but  one  Baptist  Com- 
municant in  the  United  States  to  every  fifty-six  inhabitants,  while  in  \Soi  there  was 
one  to  every  thirty  inhabitants.  The  Baptists  have  more  than  one  quarter  of  the 
whole  Church  accommodation  in  the  United  States.  ■•  •  •  The  entire  work  is  writ- 
ten with  ability  and  unfailing  good  temper."— Quaktebly  Joukxal  American 
Unitakian  Associatiox- 

"  The  good  temper  of  the  author  of  this  volume  is  obvious ;  the  method  of  arrang- 
ing his  materials  for  effect  admirable."  — Peesbvteriax. 

"  We  know  of  no  man  in  our  Clnirches  better  fitted  to  prepare  a  fair  exhibition  of 
•Baptist  Principles.'  He  is  no  controversialist;  and  his  discussions  are  in  most 
refreshing  contrast  with  many,  both  of  Baptist  defenders  and  their  opponents."  — 
fioL'TnEnrr  Baptist. 

"  The  work  cvhibits  ample  learning,  vigorous  argumentative  power,  and  an  excel- 
lent «pint  tnwanl  those  whose  views  it  controverts.  Apart  from  its  theological  bear- 
ings, it  possesses  not  a  little  historical  interest."-  N.  Y.  TRini'XE. 

"  The  aim  of  the  work  is  important,  the  plan  ingenious,  j-et  simple  and  natural, 
the  author's  preparation  for  it  apjiarcnfly  thorough  and  conscientious,  and  his  spirit 
•xccllcnt"— Watchuast  axd  Reflectob.  <r) 


MODERN    ATHEISM. 

Under  its  Forms  of  Pantheism,  Materialism,  Secularism,  Deve- 
lopment, and  Natural  Laws.    By  James  Buchanan,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
12mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 
The  Author  of  this  -work   is  the  successor  of  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  Chair  ofj 

Divinity  in  the  Xew  College,  Edinburgh,  and  the  intellectual  leader  of  the  Scottish 

Free  Church. 

nUGII    MiLLEK,    ArTHOR    OF    "  OlD    ReD   SANDSTONE,"  &G.,   &C.  —  The  WOlk 

is  one  of  the  most  readable  and  solid  which  we  have  ever  perused. 

The  "  News  of  the  Churches."—  It  is  a  work  of  which  nothing  less  can  be 
said,  than  that,  both  in  spirit  and  substance,  style  and  argument,  it  fixes  irrever- 
sibly tlie  name  of  the  author  as  a  leading  classic  in  the  Christian  literature  of  Britain. 

Howard  Malcom,  D.  D.,  President  of  Lewisburg  University.  — I  have 
found  no  work  so  helpful  to  me  as  this  as  a  teacher  of  metaphysics  and  morals.  I 
know  of  nothing  which  will  answer  for  a  substitute.  The  public  specially  need 
such  a  book  at  this  time  when  atheism  is  being  spread  abroad  with  all  earnest- 
ness, supported,  at  least  in  some  places,  both  by  church  influence  and  university 
honors.  I  cannot  but  hope  that  a  work  so  timely,  scholarly,  and  complete,  will  do 
much  good. 

One  of  the  most  scholarly  and  profound  productions  of  modern  Christian  litera- 
ture.—Worcester  Transcript. 

Dr.  Buchanan  has  earned  a  high  and  well-deserved  reputation  as  a  classical  writer 
and  close  logical  reasoner.  He  deals  heavy,  deadly  blows  on  atheism  in  all  its 
Tarious  forms.  —  Christian  Secretary. 

Uis  analyses  of  the  doctrines  held  by  the  various  schools  of  modern  atheism 
are  admirable,  and  his  criticism  original  and  profound.  It  is  an  attractive  as  well 
as  a  solid  book  ;  and  he  who  peruses  a  few  of  its  pages  is,  as  it  were,  irresistibly 
drawn  on  to  a  thorough  reading  of  the  book.—  Boston  Portfolio. 

The  style  is  very  felicitous,  and  the  reasoning  clear  and  cogent.  The  opposing 
theories  are  fairly  stated  and  combated  with  remarkable  ease  and  skill.  Even 
when  the  argument  falls  within  the  range  of  science,  it  is  so  happily  stated  that 
no  intelligent  reader  can  fail  to  understand  it. —  Boston  Journal. 

It  is  justly  described  as  "  a  great  argument,"  "  magnificent  in  its  strength,  order, 
and  beauty,"  in  a  defence  of  truth  and  against  the  variant  theories  of  atheism. 
It  reviews  the  doctrines  of  the  different  schools  of  modem  Atheism,  gives  a  fair 
statement  of  their  theories,  answers  and  refutes  them,  never  evading,  but  meeting 
and  crushing  their  arguments.  —  Piiila.  Christian  Observer. 

Dr.  Buchanan  is  candid  and  impartial,  evades  no  argument,  undertakes  no  oppos- 
ing view,  but  meets  his  antagonists  with  the  quiet  and  unswerving  confidence  of  a 
locomotive  on  iron  tracks,  pretty  svire  to  crush  them.—  Christian  Register. 

We  hail  this  production  of  a  master  mind  as  a  lucid,  vigorous,  discriminating, 
and  satisfactory  refutation  of  the  various  false  philosophies  wliich  have  appeared  in 
modern  times  to  allure  ingenuous  youth  to  their  destruction.  His  refutation  is  a 
clear  stream  of  light  from  beginning  to  end.  — Phila.  Presbyterian. 

We  recommend  "  Modern  Atheism  "  as  a  book  for  the  times,  and  as  having 
opecial  claims  on  theological  students. — Universalist  Quarterly. 

It  is  remarkable  for  the  clearness  with  which  it  apprehends  and  the  fairness 
with  which  it  states,  not  less  tlian  for  the  ability  with  which  it  replies  to,  the  schemes 
of  unbelief  in  its  various  modern  forms.  It  clears  away,  one  by  one,  the  mists  which 
the  Devil  has  conjured  around  the  great  doctrines  of  our  Faith,  by  the  help  of 
some  of  his  ingenious  modern  coadjutors,  and  leaves  the  truth  oi  God  standing  in 
its  serene  and  pristine  majesty—  Congregationalist. 

The  work  is  a  masterly  defence  of  faith  against  dogmatic  unbelief  on  the  one 
haad,  and  that  universal  skepticism  on  the  otlier.  —  N.  Y.  Christian  Chronicle. 


IMPORTANT  NEW  WORKS. 

YAHVEII  CITRIST,  or  the  iMemorial  Name.     By  Alexakder 

MacWhorter,  Yale  University.     With  an  Introductory  Letter,  by 

Isatlianiel  W.  Taylor,  D.  D.,  Dwight  Trofessor  of  Didactic  Theology, 

Yale  Theological  Seminary.    16mo,  cloth,  62  cents. 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  show  that  a  most  important  error  hm  hitherto  been 
entertained  respecting  the  Hebrew  word  given  as  "Jehovah,"  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  autlior  shows,  by  a  historic-philological  argument,  that  it  was  not  "  Jehovah," 
but  Yaiiveu,  — that  it  docs  not  mean  "I  am  "  (self-existence),  but  "He  who  Will 
Be,  Ott  Come"  (The  Deliverer) ;  in  short,  that  the  "Jehovah"  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  the  "  Christ"  of  the  New,  denote  one  and  the  same  being. 

E-XTUACT  FROM  Du.  Taylou's  IxTnoDUCTOKY  LETTER. —  The  argument  is 
altogether  new  and  original  ;  and  if  valid  proves  what  many  of  the  ablest  theologians 
have  believed,  without  resting  their  belief  on  grounds  so  thoroughly  excgetic.il.  It 
raises  a  question  to  be  met  wherever  the  Bible  is  read,  —  a  question  in  respect  to  a 
fact  which  it  would  seem,  if  not  admitted,  must  at  least  be  controverted.  The 
view  here  taken  is  too  plausible  to  be  passed  over  with  indifference  by  the  friendg 
of  truth  ;  if  true,  it  is  of  unmeasured  importance  to  the  Church  and  to  the  world. 

The  book  is  an  intensely  interesting  one  ;  rich  in  suggestions,  and  presenting  in 
its  main  topic  a  subject  that  is  deserving  of  thorough  investigation.— Chicago 
CiiKisTiAX  Times. 

This  volume  is  destined  at  least  to  awaken  thought  and  attention.  The  argu- 
ment shows  great  probability,  and  is  worth  a  serious  attention.  If  his  position  could 
be  demonstrated  it  would  be  one  of  vast  importance  to  theology,  and  would  give 
in  some  sense  a  new  face  to  the  Old  Testament.  It  i«  written  in  a  form  to  be  under- 
stood by  all  readers.— Plritax  Recorder. 

It  is  refreshing  in  these  days  of  many  books,  to  fall  in  with  an  original  work,  lay- 
ing open  a  new  vein  of  thought,  and  leading  the  student  to  a  novel  train  of  investi- 
gation. Mr.  MacWhorter  is  entitled  to  this  tare  distinction,  for  his  conclusions  will 
be  entirely  new  to  the  large  body  of  American  scholars.  It  is  marked  by  great 
thoroughness,  ripe  scholarship,  and  eminent  candor,  and  written,  too,  in  an  animated 
and  flowing  style.  We  anticipate  that  the  work  must  create  a  profound  sensation 
in  the  theological  world,  for  its  conclusions  arc  tenable  ;  it  puts  at  rest  forever  all 
doubts  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ— Watchman  and  Reflector. 

HEAVEN.     By   James   "William   Kimball.     AVith   elegant 
illustrated  title  page.    12mo,  cloth,  SI. 00. 

Prof.  IIuNTixGTOx,  Ed.  of  the  Religious  Magazine.- One  is  surprised  at 
the  mental  discipline,  the  variety  of  inform  tion,  an  the  measure  of  literary  skill 
evinced- 

Full  of  beautiful  ideas,  consoling  hopes,  and  brilliant  representations  of  human 
destiny,  all  presented  in  a  chaste,  pleasing,  readable  style.- X.  Y.  Ciiroxicle. 

There  is  an  air  of  freshness  and  originality  about  it,  that  will  render  it  interesting 
even  to  some  whose  spirits  have  not  caught  the  upward  tendency.—  Puritan  Rkc. 

This  is  a  delightful  volume,  possessing  peculiar  interest.  —  N.  E.  Farmkr. 

We  welcome  this  contribution  to  our  religious  literature,  from  the  open  pen  of 
a  Christian  merchant.  Free  from  pedantry  and  the  conventionalities  of  logic  and 
of  style,  it  comes  to  us  with  a  freshness  of  thotight  and  a  fervor  of  feeling  that  arc 
often  wantingin  the  scholar's  page.  —  N.  Y.  Independent. 

The  author  is  certainly  an  independent  thinker,  as  well  as  a  vigorous  writer,  and 
has  written  a  book  that  will  please  the  thoughtful,  and  will  astonish  pious  people, 
who  seldom,  and  always  timidly,  think.  Everything  about  the  work  is  fresh  and 
racy.  We  admire  liiin  intensely,  and  bid  him  God  speed. —  Western  Literary 
Messenoee.  (w) 


RECENT  PUBLICATIONS 


THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  as  exhibited  in  the 
writings  of  its  apologists,  down  to  Augustine,  by  W.  J.  Bolton. 
of  Gonv'lle  and  Caius  College,  Cambridge.    12mo,  cloth.    80  cts. 

This  volume  received  tlie  Hulsean  prize  (about  £500)  in  England.  The  authoi 
!s  evidentlj-a  very  learned  student  of  the  patristic  writings  and  the  whole  circk 
of  ecclesiastical  historj'.  He  has  presented  to  the  world  in  this  essay  an  admi- 
rable compendium  of  the  arguments  for  the  truth  of  Christianity  advanced  in 
the  works  of  the  Apologetic  Fathers  during  the  third,  fourth,  and  lifth  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era.  These  arguments  are  classified  as  being  deiiuced  from 
antecedent  probability,  from  antiquity,  from  prophecy,  from  miracles,  from  the 
reasonableness  of  doctrine,  from  superior  morality,  and  from  the  success  of  the 
Gospel.  — iV.  Y.  Commercial. 

"We  thankfully  accept  such  an  effort  as  this  of  a  profound  and  highly-cultivated 
mind.  —  Puritan  Recorder. 

The  work  bears  the  marks  of  great  research,  and  must  command  the  attention 
and  confidence  of  the  Christian  world.  —  Mercantile  Journal. 

THE  BETTER  LAND  ;  or.  Thoughts  on  Heaven.  By  A.  C. 
Thompson,  Pastor  of  the  Eliot  Church,  Roxbury.  12mo,  cloth. 
$1.00.     Just  published. 

THE  ilTSSION  OF  THE  COMFORTER;  with  copious  Notes. 
By  Julius  Cuaeles  Hare.  Notes  translated  for  the  American 
edition.     12mo,  cloth.     $1.25. 

Rich  in  spirituality,  strong  and  sound  in  theology,  comprehensive  in  thought, 
vigorous  and  beautiful  in  imagination,  affluent  in  learning.  —  Congregationalist. 

We  have  seldom  read  a  hook  with  greater  interest.  —  N.  Y.  EvangeVist. 

The  volume  is  of  rare  value,  and  will  be  welcomed  as  an  eloquent  and  Scriptu- 
ral exposition  of  some  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  our  faith.  —  N.  Y. Recorder 

THE  VICTORY  OF  FAITH.  By  Julius  Charles  Hare,  author 
of  "  The  Mission  of  the  Comforter,"  etc.    12mo,  cloth.    In  press. 

FIRST  LINES  OF  CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY.    In  the  form  cf 
a  SjUabus,  for  the  use  of  Students.      Royal  octavo.     $5.00. 
j^^  A  most  important  work  for  ministers  and  theological  students. 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  AVORLD,  and  thtir  relations  tc 
Christianity.  By  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  A.  M.,  Profes- 
sor of  Divinity  ia  King's  College,  London.    16mo,  cloth.    60  ct.s. 

The  effort  ir,  masterl.v,  and,  in  any  event,  must  prove  highly  interesting  by  the 
comparisons  which  it  institutes  with  the  falie  and  the  traQ.  —  Methol.  Quarterly. 

GUIDO  AND  JULIUS.  The  Doctrine  op  Sin  and  the  Pro- 
pitiator ;  or,  the  True  Consecration  of  the  Doubter.  By  F.  Aug 
0.  Tholuch,  D.D.  Translated  by  Jonathan  Edwards  Rylanu. 
Introduction  by  John  Pve  Smitu,  D.D.     IGmo,  cloth.     60  cts. 

^S"  Pre-eminently  a  book  for  the  timps  — full  £>f  interest,  and  ol  great  pc  wei 


IMPORTANT    WORK, 


KITTO'S  POPULAR  CYCLOPAEDIA  OF  BIBLICAL 
LITERATL'RE.  Condensed  from  tlie  larjier  work.  By  the  Author, 
John  Kitto,  D.  D.,  Avitlior  of  "•Scri[»ture  Daily  Readings,"  &.c..  As- 
sisted by  James  Taylor,  D.  D.     Willi  over  500  Illustrations.     3,00. 

This  work  is  designed  to  furnish  a  Dictto.xart  of  the  Biblk.  embodying  the 
products  of  the  best  and  most  recent  researches  in  biblical  literature,  in  which  the 
scliolurs  of  Turope  and  America  have  been  engaged.  The  work,  the  result  of  im- 
mense labor  and  researeli,  is  pronounced,  by  universal  consent,  the  best  work  of  its 
class  extant-  It  is  not  only  intended  for  ministers  and  theolooical  i^udr^it.*,  but  is  aL-o 
particularly  adapted  to paraits,  Sctbbath  school  teachers,  ami  the  grcnl  loil;i  of  the  re- 
liaiouspublir.  The  illustrations,  amounting  to  more  thuyt  300,  are  of  the  highest  order. 
A  condensed  vieio  of  the  various  to/ncs  comprchcndefl  in  the  uork. 

1.  BinLiCAL  Criticism,— Embracing  the  History  of  the  Bible  Languages;  Can- 
on of  Scripture;  Literary  History  and  Peculiarities  of  the  Sacred  Boolis  ;  Formatioa 
and  History  of  Scripture  Texts. 

2.  IIiSTORV,  — Proper  Xames  of  Persons;  Biographical  Sketches  of  prominent 
Characters  ;  Detailed  Accounts  of  important  Events  recorded  in  Scripture ;  Chrouol- 
Ogy  and  Genealogy  of  Scripture. 

3.  GEOGKAruv,  —  Names  of  Places ;  Description  of  Scenery;  Boundaries  snd  Mu- 
tual Relations  of  the  Countries  mentioned  in  Scripture,  so  far  as  neeessary  to  illus- 
trate the  Sacred  Text. 

4.  ARCii.tOLOGY,  — Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Jews  and  other  nations  men- 
tioned in  Scripture;  their  Sacred  Institutions,  Military  Affairs, Political  Arrange- 
ments, Literary  and  Scientific  Pursuits. 

5.  PiivsKAi.  Set  KNCE,— Scripture  Cosmogony  and  Astronomy,  Zoology,  Min- 
eralogy, Botany,  Meteorology. 

In  ad<lition  to  numerous  flattering  notices  and  reviews,  personal  letters  fh>m  m 
iar(;e  number  of  the  most  distinguished  JiliniMcr')  and  Laynen  ofdijrirrnt  jt  li;;ious  dr^ 
Rcminations  tn  the  covntn/  have  been  received,  highly  commenfling  this  work  as  ad j 
oirably  adapted  to  ministers.  Sabbath  school  teachers,  heads  of  families,  and  alX 
i^ible  students. 

The  loUowing  extract  of  a  letter  is  a  fair  specimen  of  individual  letters  received 
'irim  each  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names  arc  given  below :  — 

■'I  have  examined  it  with  special  and  unalloyed  satisfaction.    Jt  has  the  rare  merit 

f  being  all  that  it  professes  to  be;  and  very  few.  I  am  sure,  who  may  consult  it  will 
deny  that,  in  richness  and  fulness  of  detail,  it  surpasses  their  expectation.  Many 
-linisters  will  find  it  a  valuable  anxili.iry  ;  but  its  chief  excellence  is,  that  it  fumishet 
.ust  the  facilities  which  arc  needed  by  the  thousands  in  families  and  Sabbath  schools, 
■T^.'-.o  are  encaged  in  the  important  business  of  biblical  education.  It  is  in  itseif  a  li- 
l::iiry  of  reliable  infonnation." 

V/,  B.  Sprague.  D.  D..  Albany;  J.  J.  Carruthcrs.  D.  D..  Portland ;  Joel  Hatwsu 
P.  D.,  Hartford,  Ct.:  Daniel  Sharp.  D.  D..  Boston :  X.  L.  Frothincham,  D.  D..  Bo»- 
Jon;  Ephraim  Peabody.  D-  D-,  Boston  ;  A.  L.  Stone.  Boston  ;  John  S.  Stone,  D.  D.. 
3'rooklyn  ;  J.  B.  Waterbury.  D.  D.,  Boston  ;  Baron  Stow.  D.  D..  Boston  ;  Thomas  U. 
'  I.  inner,  D.  D..  New  York  ;  Samuel  "SV.  -Worcester.  D.  D..  Snlem  ;  Ilorcce  Bushr.ell, 
I  .  D.,  Hartford,  Ct ;  Right  Reverend  J.  M.  'Wainwiiirht,  D.  D..  New  York :  Gardner 
u  Drins,  D.  D.,  New  York  ;  W.  T.  Dwight.  D.  D..  1^3rtland ;  E.  N.  Kirk.  Boston  :  Prof. 
Ctorge  Bush,  author  of  "  Notes  on  the  Scriptures."  New  York  :  Howard  Malcoin, 
I).  D..nnth(.r  of  "Bible  Diet;onar>' :"  Henry  J.  I'Jpley.  D.  D..  author  of  "  Notes  on 
f-o  Scriptures;"  N.  Porter.  Prof,  in  Yale  College.  New  Iluven.  Ct.:  Jared  Sparkt, 
I  Iward  Everett,  Theodore  Frelinghuysen.  Robert  C.  AViuthrop.  .Tohn  McLean.  Si- 
vn  Grernlenf.  Thomas  S.  V.'illiams.  — and  a  Inr^c  number  of  otliers  of  like  char- 
wtcr  and  standin;;  of  the  above,  whose  names  cannot  here  appear.  H 


IMPORTANT  WORKS. 

ANALYllCAL  CONCORDANCE  OF  THE  HOLY 
SCRIPTURES ;  or,  The  Bible  presented  under  Distinct  and  Classi- 
fied Heads  or  Topics.  By  John  Eadie,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Author  of 
the  "Biblical  Cyclopaedia,"  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  &c.,  &c. 
One  volume,  royal  octavo,  836  pp.  Cloth,  $3.00 ;  sheep,  ^.50.  Just 
published. 

The  publishers  would  call  the  special  attention  of  clergymen  to  the  peculiar 
features  of  this  great  work. 

1.  It  is  a  concordance  of  subjects,  not  of  words.  In  this  it  differs  from  the  com- 
mon concordance,  which,  of  course,  it  does  not  supersede. 

2.  It  embraces  all  the  topics,  both  secular  and  religious,  which  are  naturally 
suggested  by  the  entire  contents  of  the  Bible.  In  this  it  differs  from  Scripture 
Manuals  and  Topical  Text-books,  which  are  confined  to  religious  or  doctrinal  topics. 

3.  It  contains  the  whole  of  the  Bible  without  abridgment,  dififering  in  no  respect 
from  the  Bible  in  common  use,  except  in  the  classiflcation  of  its  contents. 

4.  It  contains  a  synopsis,  separate  from  the  concordance,  presenting  within  the 
compass  of  a  few  pages  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  whole  contents. 

5.  It  contains  a  table  of  contents,  embracing  nearly  two  thousand  heads,  arranged 
in  alphabetical  order. 

The  purchaser  gets  not  only  a  Concordance,  but  also  a  Bible,  in  this  volume.  The 
superior  convenience  arising  out  of  this  fact,  —  saving,  as  it  does,  the  necessity  of 
having  two  books  at  hand  and  of  making  two  references,  instead  of  one,  —  will  be 
readily  apparent. 

The  general  subjects  (under  each  of  which  there  are  a  vast  number  of  sub-divi- 
sions) are  arranged  as  follows,  viz.  : 

Agriculture,— Animals,— Architecture,— Army,— Arms,— Body,— Canaan,— Cove- 
nant,—Diet  and  Dress,— Disease  and  Death,— Earth,— Family,— Genealogy,— God, 
Heaven,— Idolatry,  Idols,— Jesus  Christ,— Jews,— Laws,— Magistrates,— Man,— Mar- 
riage,- Metals  and  Minerals,— Ministers  of  Religion,— Miracles,— Occupations,— 
Ordinances,— Parables  andEmblems,— Persecution,— Praise  and  Prayer,— Prophecy, 
Provi^lence,-  Redemption,—  Sabbaths  and  Holy  Days,—  Sacrifice,—  Scriptures,— 
Speech,— Spirits,— Tabernacle  and  Temple,— Vineyard  and  Orchard,— Visions  and 
Dreams,— War,— Water. 

It  is  adapted  not  only  to  assist  the  student  in  prosecuting  the  investigation  of 
preconceived  ideas,  but  also  to  impart  ideas  which  the  most  careful  reading  of  the 
Bible  in  its  ordinary  arrangement  might  not  suggest.  Let  him  take  up  any  one  of 
the  subjects  —  "  Agriculture,"  for  example  —  and  see  if  such  be  not  the  case. 

No  Biblical  student  would  wiUingly  dispense  with  this  Concordance  when  once 
possessed.  It  is  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  all  classes,  —  clergymen  and  theo- 
logical students;  Sabbath-school  superintendents  and  teachers;  authors  engaged 
in  the  composition  of  religious  and  even  secular  works. 

A  COMMENTARY  ON  THE  ORIGINAL  TEXT  OF 
THE  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  By  Horatio  B.  Hackett.  D.  D., 
Prof,  of  Biblical  Lit.  and  Interpretation,  Newton  Theological  Ins. 
D^T^New,  revised,  and  enlarged  edition.    In  Press. 

tSS~  This  most  important  and  very  popular  work,  has  been  throughly  revised 
and  considerably  enlarged  by  the  introduction  of  important  new  matter,  the  result 
of  the  Author's  continued,  laborious  investigations  since  the  publication  of  the  first 
edition,  aided  by  the  more  recent  published  critcisme  of  other  distinguished  Bibli- 
cal Scholars,  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  <y  * 


WORKS   FOR   BIBLE   STUDEx^TS, 


A  TREATISE  ON  BIBLICAL  CRITICISMS;  Exhibiting 
a  Systematic  View  cf  that  Science.  By  Samuel  Davieson,  D.  D.,  of 
tiie  University  of  Malle,  Author  of"  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  "  Introduction 
to  the  New  Testament,"  etc.  A  new  Revised  and  Enlarged  Edition,  in 
two  elegant  octavo  volumes,  cloth,  5,00. 

These  volumes  contain  a  statement  of  the  sources  of  criticism,  such  as  the  MSS.  of 
the  Hebrew  Bible  and  Greek  Testament,  the  principal  versions  of  both,  quotations 
from  them  in  early  writers,  parallels,  and  also  the  internal  evidence  on  which  critics 
rely  for  obtaining  a  pure  text.  A  history  of  the  texts  of  tlie  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, with  a  description  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages  in  which  the  Scrip- 
tures are  written.  An  examination  of  disputed  passages.  Every  thing  is  discussed 
wliich  properly  beloncs  to  tlie  cndcism  of  the  text,  comprehending  all  that  comes  un- 
der the  title  of  General  Introduction  in  Introductions  to  the  Old  and  Kew  Testament 

HISTORY  OF  PALESTINE,  from  the  Patriarchal  A-c  to 
the  Present  Time  ;  witli  Introductory  Cliapters  on  the  Geography  and 
Natural  Histoiy  of  the  Country,  and  on  the  Custom.s  and  Institutions  of 
the  Hebrews.  By  Joii.\  Kitto,  D.  D.,  Author  of "  Scripture  Daily  Read- 
ings," "CycIop.Tdia  of  Biblical  Literature,"  (Sec.  With  upwards  of  tioo 
hundred  Illustrations.     12mo,  cloth.  1,25. 

A  very  full  compendium  of  the  geography  and  history  of  Palestine,  from  the  ear- 
liest era  mentioned  in  Scripture  to  the  present  day  ;  not  merely  a  dry  record  of  boun- 
daries, and  the  succession  of  rulers,  but  an  intelligible  account  of  the  agriculture, 
habits  of  life,  literature,  science,  and  art,  with  the  religious,  political,  and  judicial  in- 
stitutions of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Holy  Land  in  all  ages.  A  more  useful  and  in- 
•tructive  book  has  rarely  been  published.  —  iV.  Y.  Commercial. 

Beyond  all  dispute,  this  is  the  best  historical  compendium  of  the  Holy  Land, from 
the  days  of  Abraham  to  those  of  Alehemet  AH.  —  Edinhnr(jli  Revieic. 

C3-  In  the  numerous  notices  and  reviews  the  work  has  been  strongly  recommend- 
ed, as  not  only  admirably  adapted  to  tlie  family,  but  also  as  a  text  book  for  Sabbatk 
anil  week  day  schools. 

CRUDEN'S  CONDENSED  CONCORDANCE  ;  a  New  and 
Complete  Concordance  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  By  Alexaxder  Cru- 
DEN.  Revised  and  Reeditcd  by  the  Rev.  DAVID  KING,  LL.  D.  Tenth 
Thousand.     Octavo,  rloth  backs,  1,25. 

This  work  is  printed  from  Enslish  plates,  and  is  a  full  and  fair  copy  of  all  that  is 
▼ahiablc  as  a  Concordance  'n  Cruden's  larger  work,  in  two  volumes,  wliich  costs.^re 
dollars,  while  this  edition  is  furnished  at  one  dollar  and  tncnty-five  cents  !  The  prin- 
cipal variation  from  the  larger  book  consists  in  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  Dictionary, 
(which  has  always  been  an  incumbrance.)  the  corfdcns.ntion  of  the  quotations  of 
Scripture,  arrariged  under  their  most  obvious  heads,  which,  while  it  diminishes  the 
bulk  of  the  work,  (/rcatly  facilitates  the  finding  of  any  required  passage. 

■\Ve  have,  in  this  edition  of  Cruden.  the  hcKt  made  better  I  That  is,  the  present  is 
better  adapted  to  tlie  purposes  of  a  concordance,  by  the  erasure  of  superfluous  ref- 
erences, and  the  contraction  of  quotations,  etc.  It  is  better  as  a  manual,  and  better 
adapted  by  its  price,  to  the  moans  of  many  who  need  and  ought  to  possess  such  » 
Vork,  than  Uic  former  large  and  expensive  edition.  — i'wj<on  Recorder. 

I 


Wr.EATH  AEOUND    THE  CROSS; 

Or  Scripture  Truths  Illustrated.    By  the  Rev.  A.  Morton 

Brown,  D.  D.     AVith   a  Recommendatory  Preface,  by  John  AngelIj 

James.     With  beautiful  Frontispiece.     16mo,  clotli,  CO  cts. 

tisr  This  is  a  very  interesting  and  valuable  book,  and  should  be  in  every  house  in  the 
land.  Its  great  excellence  is,  it  magnifies  the  cross  of  Christ.  It  presents  the  follow- 
ing interesting  subjects  :"  The  Cross  needed;  The  Way  to  the  Cross;  The  Cross 
Bet  up  ;  The  Suflerings  of  the  Cross ;  Mediation  by  the  Cross  ;  Life  from  the  Cross ; 
Faith  in  the  Cross;  Submission  to  tlie  Cross  ;  Glorying  in  the  Cross ;  The  Cross  ami 
tlie  Crown."    No  better  book  can  be  put  into  the  hands  of  "  inquirers  after  truth." 

This  is  a  heautiful  volume,  defending  and  illustrating  the  precious  truths  which 
cluster  around  the  atonement.  —  P/jii.  Ch.  Chronicle. 

May  it  find  its  way  into  every  family  in  the  land.  —  Christian  Secretary. 

It  is  the  excellence  of  this  work,  that  it  keeps  constantly  in  view  this  grand  instru« 
ment  of  salvation.—  iie^i^ious  Herald. 

"  Christ,  and  Ilim  crucified,"  is  presented  in  a  new  and  striking  light.  The  style 
Is  simple,  without  being  puerile.  We  wish  this  work  a  wide  circulation,  that  un- 
der its  influence,  many  may  be  found  "looking  unto  Jesus."  —  X  Y.  Observer. 

A  highly-approved  work,  presenting  the  most  important  doctrines  of  our  holy  re- 
ligion, in  a  form  not  only  intelligible,  but  attractive  light,  adapted  to  allure  the  eye  of 
faith,  and  hope,  to  the  glorious  objects  revealed  in  the  gospel.  —  P7ii7.  Ch.  Observer. 

PHILOSOPHY   OF  THE  PLAN  OF   SALVATION:    A 

Book  for  the  Times.    By  an  American  Citizen     An   Introductory 

Essay,  by  Calvin  E.  Stowe,  D.  D.     12mo,  clctii,  63  cts. 

*,*  This  is  one  of  the  best  books  in  the  English  language.  The  work  nas  been 
translated  into  several  ditierent  languages  in  Europe.  It  has  been  rei)nL.!i!hed  by 
the  Loudon  Tract  Society,  and  also  adopted  as  one  of  the  volumes  of  "  Ward's  Li- 
brary of  Standard  Divinity."  edited  by  Drs.  John  Harris,  J.  Pye  Smith,  and  others. 
A  capital  book  to  circulate  among  young  men. 

Jlost  original  and  valuable  works  of  recent  publication.  —  X.  Y.  Ch.  Intelliijencer. 

A  useful  book,  written  with  great  spirit  and  point.  —  Fhil.  Presbyterian. 

In  many  respects,  this  is  a  remarkable  book.  —  A".  Y.  Observer. 

iAiorc  likely  to  lodge  an  impression  in  the  human  conscience,  in  favor  of  the  divine 
authority  of  Christianity,  than  any  work  of  the  modern  pvess.—Lotidon  Jfcth.JIac/. 

Few  volumes  have  issued  from  the  American  press  that  bear  the  stamp  of  origi- 
nality and  profound  thought  so  deeply  imprinted  on  every  page. —  Puritan  Pec. 

Tliis  is  really  an  original  book.  Every  sentence  is  pregnant  with  thought,  and 
every  idea  conduces  to  the  main  demonstration.  The  book  is  the  work  of  a  re- 
claimed sceptic.  — Edinburgh  United  Sec<.vion  Jfagazine. 

It  is  evidently  the  production  of  a  master  mind.  There  is  a  force  of  argument 
and  a  power  of  conviction  almost  resistless.  — Zorac/o/i  iJi-aHgreZ/caZ  J/aj7"2;V(r. 

A  book  of  singular  merit.  As  a  piece  of  clear,  vigorous,  consecutive  thinking,  we 
scarcely  know  its  superior.  We  would  not  hesitate  to  pliice  it  beside  Butler's  Analo- 
gy, as  a  specimen  of  close  and  unanswerable  reasoning;  while  it  is  far  superior  with 
regard  to  its  evangelical  views.  —  Edinburgh  Free  Church  Magazine. 

"  The  president  of  Knox  College,  Illinois"  says,  "It  is  decidedly  the  bestvindica« 
tion  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  against  the  assaults  of  infidehty,  and  one  of  the 
most  useful  class  books  which  I  have  ever  met." 

A  Welsh  minister,  in  Michigan,  says  "It  has  been  translated  into  Welsh,  and  is  cir- 
cubte.-l  broadcast  over  the  hlils,  through  the  humlcts,  and  in  the  mines  cf  his  native 
knd."  li 


WORKS    JUST    PUBLISHED, 


THE  PLrRALITY  OF  WORLDS.  A  Xew  Edition.  With 
a  Supplementary  Dialogue,  iu  which  the  author's  reviewers  are 
reviewed.    12mo.  cloth.    Sl.OO. 

This  masterly  production,  which  has  excited  so  much  interest  in  this  country  and 
in  Europe,  will  now  have  an  increased  attraction  in  the  addition  of  the  Supplement, 
in  which  the  author's  reviewers  are  triumphantly  reviewed. 

UiT"  The  Supplement  will  be  furnished  separate  to  those  who  have  the  original  work. 

INFLL'EXCE  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  SCIENCE  UPON 
INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  By  TTilliam  TVhewell,  D.  D., 
of  Trinity  College.  Cambridge,  Eng.,  and  the  alleged  author  of 
'•  Plurality  of  Worlds."    IGmo,  cloth.    25  cts. 

IIOOET'S  THESAURUS  OF  ENGLISH  WORDS.  A 
Xew  and  Improved  Edition.    12mo,  cloth.    S1.50. 

Thls  editiox  is  based  on  the  last  London  edition  (just  issued).  The  first  Ameri- 
can edition  having  been  prepared  by  Dn.  Seai:s,  for  strictly  educatioxal  rrn- 
rosF.s,  those  words  and  phrases  properly  termed  "vulgar,"  incorporated  into  the 
original  work,  were  omitted.  Regret  having  been  expressed  by  critics  and  scholars, 
whose  opinions  are  entitled  to  respect,  at  this  omission,  in  the  present  new  edition 
the  expurgated  portions  have  been  restored,  but  by  such  an  arrangement  of  matter 
as  not  to  interfere  with  the  educational  purposes  of  the  American  editor.  Besides 
this,  there  are  impoutant  additions  of  wonns  an-d  r;ii!ASKS  xot  in*  the 
E.NQLiSH  EDITION,  making  this,  therefore, in  all  respects, moke  full  axi>  perfect 

THAN   THE   AUTUOK'S   EDITIOX. 

THE  LANDING  AT  CAPE  ANNE ;  or,  The  Charter  op 
THE  FinsT  Teumanent  Colony  on  the  Tekritouy  oi'  tub 
Massachusetts  Company.  Now  discovered  and  first  published 
from  the  ouiginal  manuscript,  with  an  inquiry  into  its  authority, 
and  a  History  op  the  Colony,  1024-1628.  Roger  Coiiaut,  (Gover- 
nor.   By  John  "Wingate  Thornton.    8vo,  cloth.    Sl.CO. 

This  is  a  curious  and  exceedingly  valuable  historical  document. 

"A  volume  ofgreat  interest  and  importance."— Evexixo  Tkavfi.i.::!:. 

THE  ^VBIWELL  STORIES. 

A  series  of  volumes  illustrative  of  youthful  character,  and  combining 
Instruction  with  Amusement.     By  Walter  Aimwell,  author  of 
'•The  Boys  Own  Guide,"  'The  Boy's  Book  of  Morals  and  Manners," 
&c.     With  numerous  Illustrations. 
The  first  three  volumes  of  the  series,  now  ready,  are  — 

OSCAR  ;  OR,  The  Boy  who  had  his  own  Way.  ICmo,  cl.,  gt.  CScts. 

CLINTON ;  OR,  Boy-Life  in  the  Country.    ICmo,  cloth,  gilt.   63  cts. 

ELLA  ;  OR,  Turning  over  a  Neav  Leaf.    ICmo,  cloth,  gilt.    63  cts. 

O^T"  Each  volume  will  bo  complete  and  iiKU'i)cndcnt  of  itself,  but  the  scries  will  be 
counectcd  by  a  partial  identity  of  character,  localities,  &c.  (n) 


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